Worldpop nets Trinity Street for digital marketing venture.

Chart sponsor Worldpop is bidding to create a digital marketing powerhouse with marketing operation Trinity Street Direct after raising 5.1m [pounds sterling] of second-round funding.

The two companies plan to pool Trinity Street's 40,000-name postal and e-mail database together with Worldpop's SMS capability and online content assets to offer record companies and "aligned industries" a range of direct marketing services to young music fans. Worldpop also claims to have amassed more than 70,000 e-mail addresses through its site and its music news service to Hotmail users.

The deal was hammered out following the internet company's successful completion of a second institutional funding round before Christmas. In a move that defies the continuing downward trend among consumer internet sites, Worldpop raised 5.1m [pounds sterling] - valuing the company at 30m [pounds sterling], according to incoming chairman Charles Levison.

Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (DrKB) has invested 3m [pounds sterling], giving it 10% equity. The further 2.1m [pounds sterling] was raised from seed investors JP Morgan, 3i Group and EFT Amadeus Capital Partners -- which all have 10% stakes -- and the Accelerator Group.

Chrysalis Group deputy chairman Levison has replaced co-founder Peter Powell as chairman as part of a broader management restructure which sees co-founder Martin Heath relinquishing his CEO role. Liam ...