Kul Bhushan · · 1 min readTencent-backed Indian audio firm pockets $65m in series C money
India-based Pocket FM, an audio over-the-top (OTT) platform, has raised US$65 million in a series C funding round led by Goodwater Capital, Naver, and Tanglin Venture Partners.
Pocket FM co-founders (from left): Nishanth K S, Prateek Dixit, and Rohan Nayak / Photo credit: Pocket FM
The startup offers more than 100,000 hours of content, including audio series, stories, novels, and podcasts in eight Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, English, Kannada, and Marathi. It has 50 million users who spend an average of more than 3 billion minutes monthly on the platform.
The platform offers paid subscription as well as an ad-supported free version. The startup aims to have 5 million paid users in the next 12 months.
Pocket FM was founded in 2018 by Nishant S, Prateek Dixit, and Rohan Nayak.
In December last year, it raised US$22.4 million in a series B round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Times Group, and Tanglin Venture Partners. This round followed the series A round that saw the firm raise nearly US$5.6 million from Tencent, Times Group, and Lightspeed India.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to make available new languages, improve AI capabilities, and build a larger audio creators community.
See also: How Polygon puts India at the heart of the crypto world
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Arpit Nayak
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