June 3, Limassol

‍Muse Group, a global leader in music education and technology, today announced the next chapter in its growth journey, following the successful conclusion of Francisco Partners’ investment in the company.

This moment marks an important milestone for Muse Group. Over several years, the company has grown from a collection of popular music products into a broader ecosystem serving over 500 million annual musicians, learners, educators, creators, publishers, and audio professionals around the world. Muse Group’s industry-leading brands include Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore, Hal Leonard, Audacity, Audio.com, and MuseHub, reaching millions through digital content, publishing, education, recording, audio workflows, and software tools.

Francisco Partners initially invested in Muse Group in 2023. During the partnership, Muse Group expanded its global footprint, strengthened its technology capabilities, completed the transformational acquisition of Hal Leonard, and delivered consistent performance across its brand portfolio.

Moving forward, Muse Group will continue investing in product innovation, AI-enabled creative workflows, strategic partnerships, and selective acquisitions that strengthen its role in the global creator ecosystem. The company’s ambition is to build the definitive technology platform for music learners and creators, helping them move more naturally from learning to producing, recording, publishing, sharing, licensing, and monetizing their work.

“I founded Ultimate Guitar in 1998, driven by a passion to improve the lives of musicians every day. Francisco Partners helped us expand that vision to more markets, more products, and more creators around the globe,” said Eugeny Naidenov, founder and CEO of Muse Group. “Muse Group is now ready for its next phase. We have the products, the team, the community, and the ambition to keep building technology that helps musicians do even more with their creativity.”

“This is an important milestone for Muse Group and a strong reflection of what the team has built,” said Mo Chahdi, Executive Chairman and COO. “We are grateful for Francisco Partners’ partnership and the support they provided across this journey – helping to execute and fully integrate the acquisition of Hal Leonard and acting as a valuable strategic partner in the strengthening of our global footprint, product offering, and technology. Our next chapter is focused on execution, product innovation, and making the Muse ecosystem more connected and valuable for creators.”

Anyone can currently learn to play through Ultimate Guitar, write and arrange in MuseScore Studio, record and edit tracks in Audacity, discover workflow enhancing apps in MuseHub, share their sounds on Audio.com, and connect into publishing, education, licensing, and monetization opportunities through Hal Leonard. Building deeper and easier connections between these offerings will become a core priority in the future.

The company will also continue embedding practical AI into the workflows creators already use every day, including notation, audio, transcription, learning, content enhancement, and creative production. Muse Group’s focus is on using AI to make the creative process faster, easier, and more valuable, supported by trusted products, structured content, deep user engagement, and clearly-defined creator needs.

Muse Group will also continue to partner with and acquire products that support its mission. The company will look for businesses with loyal communities, strong product foundations, high-intent users, and the potential to become more valuable as part of the Muse Group ecosystem. Building on its experience with its own highly successful digital brands, the company aims to help creator products scale faster while staying close to the communities they serve.

“It has been a privilege to work with Eugeny, Mo, and the Muse Group team over the course of our partnership,” said Lee Rubenstein, Managing Director at Francisco Partners. “Since our initial investment, the company has delivered impressive growth, completed its transformational acquisition of Hal Leonard, and built a leading global music technology platform. We are proud of the company’s accomplishments and are confident Muse Group is well positioned for its next chapter of growth.”

The concluding transaction between Francisco Partners and Muse Group was supported by senior credit facilities arranged by J.P. Morgan and cash on hand. Muse Group remains majority owned and controlled by founder and CEO Eugeny Naidenov, partnering closely with Mo Chahdi as Executive Chairman and COO, alongside an experienced management team with deep expertise in technology, product development, growth, AI, global operations, finance, and organizational scaling.