Pocket FM has secured $65 million in a Series C round of funding. The audio-streaming startup is looking to expand into additional languages, grow its network of audio content creators, and assist them in monetizing their work on the platform.
Pocket FM has raised $65 million in Series C fundraising headed by Goodwater Capital, South Korean internet behemoth Naver, and current investor Tanglin Venture Partners.
This round of funding comes roughly three months after the company received $22.4 million in Series B capital in December of last year.
To date, the business has received $93.6 million in funding from investors including Lightspeed, Tencent, Times Group, and Tanglin Venture Partners.
The money raised will be used by the Gurugram-based firm to develop its product, extend to additional languages, invest in artificial intelligence capabilities, scale its community of audio content makers, and assist them in monetising on the platform.
CEO of Pocket FM, Rohan Nayak, stated, “This demonstrates Pocket FM’s market leadership and confidence in the company’s execution ability. Over the last year, audio consumption has increased exponentially, and we are on a goal to establish the largest audio OTT platform.”
Pocket FM, which was founded in 2018 by Nayak, Nishanth Srinivas, and Prateek Dixit, claims to provide more than 100,000 hours of long-format audio material in English and seven Indian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and Marathi.
Pocket FM says it has over 50,000 professional user-generated content (PUGC) authors and voice artists in its creative community.
You can buy the service for Rs 399 a year as an annual subscription. It also has a free ad-supported version with a restricted selection of content.
The company stated in December that users spend more than 110 minutes each day on the app.
Nishanth KS, cofounder of Pocket FM, stated, “Aside from audio entertainment, we witnessed a 12x increase in consumption of self-help books and audio courses. Users are seeking for high-quality knowledge stuff to help them improve their skills. With this funding, we hope to expand our creator community even further and reach 5 million paying customers in the next 12 months.”
Scott Shiao, Director of Investment at Goodwater Capital said, “Pocket FM helps audio producers around the world in generating the best long-form audio content, from writing to voice acting, while also offering a route for consumers to search and discover that material. We look forward to assisting Pocket FM in expanding its platform.”
