Kylie Minogue becomes shareholder in British streaming start-up Roxi

Kylie Minogue has become a shareholder in a British music streaming start-up and is the face of the company’s new advertising campaign.

The Australian singer is the latest backer of Roxi, a British rival to Spotify and Apple Music that has developed its own streaming set top box.

Ms Minogue joins previous celebrity backers of Roxi including Robbie Williams, Sheryl Crow and Alesha Dixon.

Roxi will attempt to attract customers with a new television advertising campaign launching next week on more than 100 channels. The campaign will run for more than a month and end on December 21.

The business is also hoping that Britons will choose to subscribe to Roxi over rival services because it includes playlists produced by Ms Minogue as well as its other famous backers.

The company has raised investment from former McLaren executive Ron Dennis, who owns a 10pc stake in the company, as well as Henrik Holmark, the former finance chief of jewelry chain Pandora, and Nigel Wray, owner of Saracens rugby club.

The Telegraph reported in September that Roxi has struck a partnership with Sky to bring its streaming service to the company’s Sky Q set top boxes.

Roxi had been manufacturing its own £99 set top box since launching in 2015 under the name Electric Jukebox but is switching focus to developing software which can be installed on televisions and game consoles.

The business originally launched in 2015 but suffered a series of delays which pushed back the release of its hardware.

Rob Lewis, the company’s chief executive, has said that Roxi’s development has been a “very long, arduous journey.”

The business decided to cancel a float in the UK which could have seen its valuation rise to £50m because of market fluctuations caused by concerns over the impact of Brexit as well as the coronavirus pandemic.