A new venture capital firm from former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is among several investors in a Chicago app that aims to help you learn to play the violin.
Trala announced Wednesday that it raised $3.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Next Play Ventures, an early-stage VC fund launched this year by Weiner, who currently serves as LinkedIn's executive chairman. The term "next play" has served as an unofficial mantra of sorts at LinkedIn as a reminder to not linger on what just took place and move on to what's next. Weiner has said he borrowed the phrase from Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Other investors in the round include Lachy Groom’s fund, Techstars Ventures, Blue Titan Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, Webb Investment Network, Phoenix Rising, Concrete Rose Capital and several angel investors. Trala, which was part of the 2018 Techstars Chicago class, has raised just under $5 million to date.
Founded in 2017, Trala's app features video tutorials with notable violinists along with "signal processing" technology that listens while you play the violin and gives instant feedback on rhythm and pitch mistakes.
Trala's app has been downloaded more than 250,000 times, and students spend an average of five hours per week on the app, the startup says. Trala charges $20 per month or $120 for the entire year.
Eventually, Trala says it plans to expand its app to help people learn all instruments in the symphony orchestra.
“One in two people will pick up an instrument at some point in their life, but the majority will end up abandoning it," Sam Walder, co-founder and CEO of Trala, said in a statement. "We see a huge opportunity to bring music education to scale and provide new paths for anyone to become a musician.”
