Claes Loberg

Claes Loberg
Born	(1970-01-21)21 January 1970 Sweden
Died	15 June 2023(2023-06-15) (aged 53)
Nationality	Swedish, Australian
Occupation	CEO & Co-Founder Bounty Media

Claes J M Loberg (21 January 1970 - 15 June 2023) was a Swedish born Australian technology entrepreneur and designer who founded the music streaming and downloading service Guvera.^[1][2][3] in 2008, and Zero Party Deep Data Platform, Bounty Media in 2019, funded by SOSV in Singapore.^[4] In June 2023, Loberg died from a sudden aortic dissection.^[5]

Early life and education

Loberg was born in Sweden on January 21, 1970 and grew up in Woolgoolga, New South Wales and attended Woolgoolga High School. He was educated in fine arts at Lund University Sweden, Business & Leadership at London Business School United Kingdom, and International Business at the Graduate school of business at QUT.^[6]

Career

In 1994, Loberg founded his first company, Hyro.com,^[7][8] which was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:HYO) and ranked as one of the biggest IT and web development companies in Australia, with offices both domestically and in China and Thailand.^[9]

Loberg was one of the founding team of Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) in London in 2004, assisting with partners in Australia and the USA.^[10][11][12] BCMA was dedicated to business-related research, specifically the concept of advertiser brands distributing versus disrupting content.

Loberg founded Guvera in 2008 with colleague Brad Christiansen. In 2010, Guvera was launched as an online MP3 site.^[13] Loberg and his co-founders helped raise an initial $20 million investment for Guvera through private equity firm AMMA.^[14]

Guvera was ranked by Billboard Magazine as one of the best digital music start-ups of 2010.^[15]

Loberg was listed as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011,^[16] after winning the Technology category in Australia.^[17]

In 2021, in was reported that Loberg had also co-founded the Bounty Media Zero Party Deep Data platform with Jake Denney in Singapore in 2019, after securing funding from venture capital company SOSV^[18]

Guvera

Main article: Guvera

In 2008 Loberg, Brad Christiansen set up Guvera Limited in Robina, Australia. In January 2010, the company launched its legal music streaming and download service Guvera. Claes Loberg currently serves as its Director of Innovation and on its board of directors. In July 2016, it was reported that Loberg would become CEO.^[19]

Guvera, acquired Blinkbox Music from UK retail chain Tesco in January 2011. Then Blinkbox was closed six months later as reported in BRW Australia. ^[20]

Guvera, launched in India in 2014, at an event in Mumbai as reported in Billboard.^[21]

As of May 2017, Guvera has shut down all operations across all markets.^[22]

References

1. Cummins, Carolyn (26 July 2016). "Meet Claes, the new Beverly Hillbilly". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
2. "Interview: Guvera CEO Claes Loberg". 5 April 2010.
3. "Claes Loberg Quote". 5 December 2009.
4. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
5. "Business mourns loss of tech entrepreneur Loberg, aged 53".
6. "Claes Loberg: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
7. James Bainbridge (8 July 2004). "Branded content group comes to Australia". bandt.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
8. "AdNews". Archived from the original on 22 April 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
9. "Hyro Ltd (HYO.AX) Company Profile". Reuters.com. 9 February 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
10. "Lights! Camera! Brand action!". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 July 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
11. "Printable". adage.com. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
12. "Branded content group comes to Australia | B&T". archive.ph. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
13. "Guvera CEO Darren Herft Is Stepping Down". Billboard. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
14. "Exclusive: Guvera Raises $20M for Stealthy Brand-Supported Music and Video Service". 18 January 2010.
15. "Billboard Names 10 Best Digital Music Startups". hypebot. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
16. http://eoy.ey.com.au/claes-loberg-guvera-limited/w1/i1609675/ ^{[dead link‍]}
17. "2011 Technology category National finalists | Entrepreneur of the Year". Eoy.ey.com.au. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
18. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
19. Billboard Staff (25 July 2016). "Guvera CEO Darren Herft Is Stepping Down". Billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
20. "What went wrong for Guvera as UK acquisition collapses in less than 6 months". www.brw.com.au. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
21. "Streaming Service Guvera Launches in India". Billboard. 7 November 2014.
22. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 14 July 2017.