In one of the largest deals of 2024, Pocket FM raises $103 mn to strengthen its global push

• This latest round brings Pocket FM’s total funding to date to $196.5 million.
• The new funding will aid its plans to expand into Europe and LatAm markets in 2024.
• Pocket FM, founded in 2018, has a repository of over 100,000 hours of content.
  

Audio entertainment platform Pocket FM announced on Wednesday that it has raised $103 million in Series D funding — making it one of the chunkiest fundraises of the year yet. The new funding will strengthen Pocket FM's push into the US market and also support global expansion as the company plans to expand into Europe and LatAm markets in 2024.

This latest round brings Pocket FM’s total funding to date to $196.5 million, the company said in a release. The latest round was led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group.

Pocket FM, founded in 2018, has been hailed as the ‘Netflix for Audio’. It has built a repository of exclusive audio series. It has over 100,000 hours of content, including over 2,000 exclusive audio series and more than 400,000 episodes across genres and languages.

“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,” said Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed.

The company said that it has surpassed $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), and is growing at 57% quarter on quarter (QoQ). It has clocked over 20 million transactions in 2023.

Pocket FM has put up an AI-led strategy for automation, content curation, production, and distribution. The company plans to leverage generative AI to scale its entertainment content offerings and build AI-powered personalized recommendations that enhance the overall user experience.

“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," said Rohan Nayak, CEO and co-founder of Pocket FM.

The company announced its US entry in Q4 of 2022 and its revenue has surpassed $100 million ARR in the US market. The platform has approximately 10 million registered users in the US.

"Our robust content library of audio series and a strong consumption behaviour 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,” said Nayak.

It’s raining VC deals

Apart from Pocket FM’s over $100 million fundraising deal, fintech Perfios raised $80 million to turn into a unicorn recently. VCs have been writing large-sized cheques this March. On Wednesday, yet another startup – homegrown wearables startup Ultrahuman said that it raised $35 million in a series B funding round.

Lithium-ion battery pack maker Lohum also raised $50 million, while personal care brands The Ayurveda and Cureskin raised $27 million and $20 million, respectively. Social media discovery app Hunch too raised as much as $23 million.

Apart from Perfios, yet another company, Krutrim AI also turned into a unicorn earlier this year. Sector experts believe that the funding winter that was set in 2022 is thawing.