Indian audio over-the-top (OTT) app Pocket FM has raised $22.4 million in its Series B funding round. Led by Lightspeed, the round also involved new investor Tanglin Venture Partners and existing investors including The Times Group, which owns ETtech.
The startup plans to use the fresh capital to scale up operations, build a community of content creators, expand its presence across geographies and invest in technology for better recommendations, reported ET.
Founded in 2018 by Rohan Nayak, Nishant KS and Prateek Dixit, Pocket FM is an online marketplace that offers long-form audio content including audio shows, stories, novels and podcasts. There are more than 100,000 hours of content across various genres from more than 17,000 writers and voice artists creating content in eight languages—Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, English, Kannada and Marathi.
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The service is available through an annual subscription priced at Rs 399 per year. It also offers a free ad-supported version with limited content catalog.
The startup claims to have registered more than 40 million downloads, three billion monthly listening minutes, and more than 110 minutes of average daily use time in three years. It aims to surpass 100 million users in the next six months.
“We are excited to back the Pocket FM team as they scale to build the future of audio content and are looking forward to the next phase of this incredible journey. The team has constantly innovated ahead of the curve, with multiple language offerings for their short- and long-form audio content and in becoming the go-to destination for audio content creators,” said Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed.
Sankalp Gupta, Partner, Tanglin Venture Partners, said, “The company’s stellar growth trajectory, user engagement, and retention are a testament of the consumer’s love for Pocket FM’s product.”
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