Pop megastar Pharrell Williams has been named as the Chief Creative Officer of British music tech start-up company ROLI.

The 44 year old Grammy winning musician and producer has teamed up with ROLI, a platform for next-generation instrumentation set up by Roland Lamb, as a major investor in the company, becoming one of its co-owners in the process as per a long-term agreement between the parties. The value of Pharrell’s investment has not been disclosed in reports.

Williams said in a statement on Wednesday (October 25th): “Music touches all of us, and for a long time I’ve been passionate about finding ways to share the power of music with more people. When I met Roland and ROLI, I immediately felt we were working towards exactly the same goals, and so I’m super excited that we’re kicking off this partnership.”

Pharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams has invested in music tech start-up ROLI

The first collaboration from the partnership will be a “Happy by Pharrell” studio-pack in ROLI’s ‘Noise’ app, where users can play around with the vocals, beats, and basslines of Pharrell’s ubiquitous 2013 hit or use its separate elements in a new piece of music.

More: Pharrell Williams takes a knee at concert for Charlottesville

ROLI was first launched eight years ago, and has become known for two innovative music-creation apps, Seaboard and Roli Blocks, which according to a press release from ROLI “long-term mission to create digitally connected, beautifully designed instruments that open up music creation to everyone.”

In its lifetime it has raised over £30 million from top venture capital investors and was named one of Tech City UK's Future Fifty in 2017.

Pharrell, as well as being the most successful pop star in the world back in 2013 when he featured on massive global hits by Daft Punk (‘Get Lucky’) and Robin Thicke (‘Blurred Lines’) in addition to his own ‘Happy’, is also a record producer with over two decades of hit-making experience, and a member of NERD and production duo The Neptunes.

More: Pharrell Williams is staying far away from his baby triplets’ dirty diapers