Ex-Kobalt executive Simon Dennett joins Matching Engine developer Spanish Point
Dennett, a 14-year Kobalt veteran, becomes Chief Product Officer at the Irish firm behind the rights platform used by IMRO, SOCAN, TONO and Koda.
Simon Dennett has been named Chief Product Officer at Spanish Point Technologies, the Irish company behind the Matching Engine rights platform, Music Business Worldwide reported. He will lead the platform’s international expansion.
Dennett spent 14 years at Kobalt Music Group, where he held both Chief Product Officer and Chief Commercial Officer roles. He helped bring its global digital collection society, amra, to market, later sat on amra’s board, and created products that underpinned the growth of AWAL, then Kobalt’s recordings division. He has since built, advised and invested in businesses focused on rights, intellectual property and technology.
Matching Engine launched in 2018. The cloud-native platform is built on Microsoft Azure and handles repertoire and usage matching, distribution processing, licensing and member services for collective management organizations (CMOs). CMOs in 13 countries across Europe and North America use it, including IMRO, SOCAN, TONO and Koda.
Spanish Point CEO and co-founder John Corley said that as Matching Engine grows internationally, Dennett’s experience “will be instrumental in helping CMOs meet the challenges ahead.” Dennett said rights management is becoming more data intensive and technically demanding, with AI amplifying that trend, and that “the opportunity now is global.”
The company has also appointed Brian Caulfield as Chairperson. Caulfield is a Venture Partner and former Managing Partner at Molten Ventures, and has backed Movidius, Graphcore and Clavis Insight.
Spanish Point puts its headcount at more than 120, double its 2023 size. It projects that CMOs on Matching Engine will distribute more than €1.2 billion (over $1.3 billion) in royalties to over 500,000 creators and rightsholders this year.
