Fonos, a Vietnam-based audio platform, has raised US$1.1 million in seed funding from Hustle Fund and iSeed, as well as investors from AngelCentral and other local angel investors.
Founded in 2020 by Oscar Jesionek and Xuan Nguyen, Fonos offers subscription-based audiobooks, book summaries, and other audio content on its platform.
Fonos founders Xuan Nguyen (left) and Oscar Jesionek / Photo credit: Fonos
The company aims to provide high-quality audio recordings through its partnerships with local book publishers such as Tre Publishing House, Alpha Books, Thai Ha Books, Nha Nam, and Dong A. Fonos also features content from international authors. Users can access the platform for a monthly subscription fee of around US$4.20.
Fonos said that it has seen a 5x growth in terms of monthly revenue since the beginning of the year. It also recorded 80,000 monthly active users in August.
According to the startup, the majority of its users come from bigger cities in Vietnam, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It added that most of its subscribers are between 25 and 34 years old, which are mainly young professionals, followed by users in the 18 to 25 age group.
Jesionek, who also serves as the company’s CEO, told Tech in Asia that the startup has its own recording studios and works with various voice artists. He added that the audio production team constitutes half of the headcount in the firm, which currently has 25 employees. The company plans to expand the team as it scales up content creation.
Fonos, however, isn’t the first company to take a shot at the audiobook market in Vietnam, which is home to nearly 69 million internet users.
Waves, a Vietnam-based audio and podcast startup, shut down operations in October last year. It managed to raise US$1.2 million in seed funding before its closure.
Jesionek says that unlike Waves, Fonos started with audiobooks, which is less challenging to monetize. The startup is also counting on the increasing popularity of e-wallets in the country, which has made it possible to pursue a subscription-based service for mass users.
“There is a real demand for high-quality content that can be consumed on-the-go by Vietnamese millennials,” Jesionek says in a statement. “We’re listening closely to what our users are telling us and plan to grow our content library accordingly.”
Editing by Thu Huong Le and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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