Former BMG U.K. President Alexi Cory-Smith has launched Bella Figura Music, an “artist-centric music company for the digital age.”

Financed by private equity fund Freshstream, the company has already made a number of acquisitions: the publishing catalog of Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams hits such as “Angels,” “Feel” and “Let Me Entertain You”); David Gray’s label IHT, which owns all of his albums, including breakthrough 1998 set White Ladder; and a divested portfolio of rights from Kobalt Music Copyrights that includes shares in recordings by Dashboard Confessional and Placebo Wombats.

Cory-Smith is Bella Figura's CEO. Co-founder Neelesh Prabhu, who previously led the global investments division of BMG, is head of Investments.

“I view David Gray and Guy Chambers as the founding blocks on which we build the business,” said Cory-Smith. “One is records; the other is publishing—both top-quality catalogs. I'm very proud of what we've achieved in Bella Figura Music’s first year of business. I’ve always wanted to have my own music company and after years in corporates, the timing to take an entrepreneurial path felt right.”

Based in London's Soho district, Bella Figura is aiming to taking a boutique, hands-on approach to the artists involved. A primary goal is to ensure that its copyright data matches every royalty payment as soon as that payment is triggered.

Other assets acquired by Bella Figura include R3HAB’s catalog up to 2022 and U.S. songwriter-producer Darrell Brown’s publishing shares in 25 songs, among them hits for Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes.