Pocket FM, a leading audio entertainment platform company, announced that it has raised $103 million in Series D funding. Lightspeed led this round, which StepStone Group participated in. Including this round, Pocket FM has raised $196.5 million in total funding.
This new funding round will strengthen Pocket FM’s push into the U.S. and support global expansion as the company plans to expand into Europe and LATAM markets this year. And the company will continue strengthening its exclusive content library and create a robust IP playbook by offering the writer community a stage to share their unique stories.
Pocket FM has been seeing a gap in the entertainment landscape and capitalizing on it by focusing on original storytelling across different genres, creating a new entertainment category in the form of audio series. And since launching in 2018, Pocket FM has been driving serialized audio storytelling, and has established itself as the leader in personalized audio entertainment. The company is transforming the entertainment category with its audio series and crafting a playbook to define the future of entertainment.
Pocket FM built the largest repository of exclusive audio series. And with 100,000+ hours of content, including 2,000+ exclusive audio series and over 400,000 episodes across genres and languages, the platform has built a loyal audience and established itself as a driving force in the entertainment category. The company has surpassed $150 million in ARR and is growing at 57% quarter-over-quarter. And it has generated over 20 million transactions last year. Globally, listeners spent an average of over 115 minutes daily. Last year alone, the platform saw over 75 billion minutes of streaming worldwide.
Plus, the company announced its U.S. entry in Q4 of 2022, and its revenue has surpassed $100 million in ARR in the U.S. market. And U.S. audiences are the most engaged on the platform globally, spending over 135 minutes daily. The platform has about 10 million registered users in the U.S.
Pocket FM has developed a GenAI-led strategy for automation, content curation, production, and distribution. And the company plans to utilize GenAI to scale its entertainment content offerings and build AI-powered personalized recommendations that enhance the overall user experience.
KEY QUOTES:
“We identified an unexplored space in the entertainment industry driven by an increasing demand for audio fiction and crafted a playbook to address this opportunity across every key market. Our robust content library of audio series and a strong consumption behavior on the platform is shaping the future of entertainment. 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.”
– Rohan Nayak, CEO and Co-Founder of Pocket FM
“What sets Pocket FM apart is its vision to set up a sustainable and profitable business, backed by its unique pricing strategy. It emerges as a great reference for the entertainment landscape, with its capability to demonstrate strong unit economics. They are not just building a new category but democratizing the entertainment landscape with a tech-driven approach.”
– Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed
