With Stepstone Group and Lightspeed leading the way, audio series platform Pocket FM raised $103 million in a Series D funding round.
As the company plans to enter Europe and Latin America this year, the new funding will help Pocket FM’s global expansion efforts as well as its push into the US market, the company said in a press release.
Long-form audio material, such as audio books, stories, and novels, is made easier with Pocket FM. By giving the writer community a platform, the company will continue to produce exclusive content libraries.
With this most recent funding round, Pocket FM has raised $196.5 million in total.
The Bengaluru-based company states that it has over 100,000 hours of content total, with over 400,000 episodes in various genres and languages and over 2,000 exclusive audio series.
Additionally, the business reported that its ARR has exceeded $150 million (about Rs. 1,250 crore) and that it is growing at a rate of 57% quarter over quarter. It recorded more than 20 million transactions in 2023, and it stated that its average revenue run rate (ARR) in the United States for the most recent calendar year exceeded $100 million.
“US audiences are the most engaged on the platform globally, spending over 135 minutes daily. The platform has approximately 10 million registered users in the US,” the firm added in the press release.
Media states that the Indian arm of Pocket’s FM saw an 8.7X increase in revenue, from Rs 17 crore in FY22 to Rs 148.7 crore in FY23. In FY23, the company’s losses decreased by 73.5% to Rs 45.47 crore from Rs 171.6 crore in FY22.
During its Series C round in September of last year, its direct rival Kuku FM raised $25 million. From Rs 4.4 crore in FY22 to Rs 41.2 crore in FY23, the company’s operating revenue increased.
