Pocket FM Raises $22.4 Million In Series B The funds will be utilized to scale up operations, build a community of content creators, intensify its presence across geographies, among others
By Shrabona Ghosh •
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Pocket FM, India's largest audio OTT app, has raised $22.4 million in Series B round led by Lightspeed. The funding also welcomed participation from Times Group and Tanglin Venture Partners.
The funds will be utilized to scale up its operations, build a community of content creators, intensify its presence across geographies, invest in technology for better recommendations and strengthen the overall audio OTT category globally.
Founded in 2018, Pocket FM is now amongst the top OTT players in India that offers 100,000-plus hours of enriching long-format content. Within three years, it has registered over 40 million downloads, 3 billion monthly listening minutes and more than 110 minutes being spent by users daily on the app. It is among the top-ranking apps in the music and audio category on the PlayStore. The company intends to surpass 100 million users in the next six months, said a statement.
"We are building a robust ecosystem for audio OTT with Pocket FM and its largest community of content creators. We are at a juncture where both Pocket FM and the overall audio OTT space are witnessing exponential growth. Audio storytelling has now become a mainstream content format for entertainment and our mission is to build Pocket FM as a global entertainment service provider. We are grateful to our investors for their continued faith and support in our vision and are very optimistic about the future," said Rohan Nayak, co-founder and CEO of Pocket FM, in the statement.
"We are excited to back the Pocket FM team as they are scaling up to build the future of audio content. 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.
Pocket FM offers 100,000-plus hours of enriching content via long-format content, audio shows, stories, novels and podcasts. With a wide community of 17,000-plus PUGC writers and voice artists, Pocket FM has a plethora of the finest and premium audio content in eight languages- Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, English, Kannada and Marathi. At present, Pocket FM has some of the most popular audio shows in India, with shows like "Yeh Rishta Kaisa Hai' and "Yakshini', that have garnered over 300 million and 100 million plays respectively. Since its inception, Pocket FM has worked towards democratizing audio creation by discovering, nurturing and promoting new talent. Before this round, Pocket FM raised $650,000 in Seed funding round and $ 5.6 million in Series A, added the statement.
