The startup Truelinked, led by Sune Hjerrild, has raised € 2.1 millions (DKK 16 millions) in venture capital. The investment comes from the Danish Growth Fund, VF Venture, and a range of business angels. The company has developed an online platform for recruiting, casting and networking within the classical music industry. Truelinked plans to use the investment on marketing efforts and further development of the platform.
With their online casting platform, the company seeks to change the way freelance artists are recruited in the classical music industry.
“The classical music industry is generally characterized by lack of transparency, expensive manual processes and agents, when freelance artists search for new job openings. Our mission is to digitalize the casting process and thus obviate the costly intermediaries between artists and arts organizations,” explains Sune Hjerrild, Truelinked CEO.
The world’s largest online platform for freelance artists
With more than 1,400 artists and numerous art organizations subscribed to the platform, Truelinked is already the world’s largest online platform for vetted freelance artists. On Truelinked.com artists all over the world can create profiles and promote themselves through video and audio files. They can search, share and recommend job openings mutually. Arts organizations get access to online casting tools and production planning. The complex search engine makes it possible to overview and identify the most relevant candidates among thousands of vetted professionals in no time. This makes it possible to service classical arts organizations of all sizes, budgets and artistic levels in one place. In this way, Truelinked limits the need for agents and intermediaries, who until now has functioned as gatekeepers between the two parties.
“Truelinked introduces a digital product to an otherwise low tech market, and the platform can potentially revolutionize the market for artists and organizations within classical music. At the Danish Growth Fund, we look forward to follow the company and the competent team behind the platform in their further development,” says Jakob Fuhr Hansen, partner in VF Venture.
Experienced opera singer behind the Truelinked platform
Founder and CEO Sune Hjerrild realized he had a talent for opera during high school. Since then, he has taken part in numerous international opera productions. In 2007, he became part of Lindberg Management, where he worked as an artistic consultant for the agent industry. During his time at Lindberg Management, he realized the potential for digitalizing the casting process, and in 2013, he established Truelinked. The investment from The Danish Growth Fund will help realize the full potential of the company.
“The investment from VF Venture is a significant stamp of approval. It is not every day an enterprise within the niche of classical music gets that kind of financial support and attention. We are now able to hire more employees to focus on global sales and marketing of the platform,” says Sune Hjerrild.
