This deck raised $9m for ex-BBC strategist’s news audio startup

ABOUT

Curio offers a curated library of journalism in the form of audio, giving listeners their daily fix of news and analyses.

The UK-based company was founded in 2016 by Govind Balakrishnan, who previously worked for the BBC as a strategist, and Srikant Chakravarti, a former solicitor in London.

Curio includes content from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Wired, MIT Technology Review, and Aeon. The audio stories on the platform can be filtered according to new stories, most played, categories, and publications. Listeners can also discover new tracks on playlists curated bi-weekly by the Curio editorial team.

The startup used this pitch deck for its series A round, and it said that it would use the funds to expand into new markets including India, Australia, and South Africa.

Fundraising journey

• 2018: US$2 million in seed funding from Cherry, 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups), and undisclosed private angel investors
• 2020: US$9 million from a series A round led by Earlybird, with participation from Draper Esprit, Cherry Ventures, and Horizons Ventures

How is the deck compelling?

• The pitch deck is crisp since it mostly contains images and doesn’t include too many words.
• The deck begins with the background story of why Curio was developed and introduces the service that the company provides.
• On the business side, it shows the month-on-month revenue that Curio makes and how it performs compared to traditional news websites.

SOURCE

Deck: Failory