Pocket FM Raises USD 103 Mn in Series D Led by Lightspeed The Bengaluru-based audio entertainment platform aims to deploy the new capital to power global expansion, strengthen content library, and advance generative AI initiatives.
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Audio entertainment platform Pocket FM has announced the raising of USD 103 million funding in Series D led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group.
With this most recent round, Pocket FM has received USD 196.5 million in funding overall. In March 2022, it raised USD 65 million in a Series C round.
As per the official release, the new funding will strengthen Pocket FM's push into the US market and also support global expansion into Europe and LATAM markets in 2024.
It will continue to strengthen its exclusive content library and create a strong IP playbook by providing the writer community a stage to share their unheard stories.
Rohan Nayak, CEO and Co-founder of Pocket FM, said, "Our focus remains on tapping into unique and exclusive stories to solidify our leadership in this emerging category and create a strong IP playbook. This latest funding validates our vision and the possibilities we bring to disrupt the industry."
Founded in 2018 by Rohan Nayak, Nishant S and Prateek Dixit, Pocket FM provides podcasts and other content in Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, and other regional languages.
The platform claims to have over 100,000 hours of content, including 2,000+ exclusive audio series and more than 400,000 episodes across genres and languages.
The company said in a statement that it has surpassed USD 150 million ARR, and is growing at 57% QoQ. It has clocked over 20 million transactions in 2023. Globally, listeners spend an average of over 115 minutes daily. In 2023 alone, the platform witnessed over 75 billion minutes of streaming worldwide.
As per the platform, the company announced its US entry in Q4 of 2022 and its revenue has surpassed USD 100 million ARR in the US market. The platform has approximately 10 million registered users in the US.
