Pocket FM: Pocket FM raises $103 mn in Series D round from Lightspeed, Stepstone Group


Pocket FM, a number one audio leisure platform, has raised $103 million in Collection D funding led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group. The most recent spherical brings Pocket FM’s whole funding thus far to $196.5 million.

The brand new funding will strengthen Pocket FM’s push into the U.S. market and in addition help world enlargement as the corporate plans to increase into Europe and LATAM markets in 2024.

The corporate will proceed to strengthen its unique content library and create a robust IP playbook by offering the author neighborhood with a stage to share their distinctive and unheard tales.

The corporate stated it has exceeded $150 million in annualised income run charge (ARR) worldwide, with income rising at 57% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).

Its income has surpassed $100 million in ARR within the U.S. market. It launched within the US in This fall of 2022. US audiences spend over 135 minutes day by day. The platform has roughly 10 million registered customers within the U.S.

Pocket FM has put up an AI-led technique for automation, content material curation, manufacturing, and distribution. The corporate plans to leverage generative AI to scale its leisure content material choices and construct AI-powered personalised suggestions that improve the general person expertise. “We recognized an unexplored house within the leisure trade pushed by an growing demand for audio fiction and crafted a playbook to deal with this chance throughout each key market,” stated Rohan Nayak, CEO and co-founder of Pocket FM.”Our sturdy content material library of audio sequence and powerful consumption behaviour on the platform are shaping the way forward for leisure. Our focus stays on tapping into distinctive and unique tales to solidify our management on this rising class and create a robust IP playbook. This newest funding validates our imaginative and prescient and the chances we carry to disrupt the trade.”

“What units Pocket FM aside is its imaginative and prescient to arrange a sustainable and worthwhile enterprise, backed by its distinctive pricing technique. It emerges as an amazing reference for the leisure panorama with its functionality to exhibit sturdy unit economics. They don’t seem to be simply constructing a brand new class however democratising the leisure panorama with a tech-driven method,” stated Harsha Kumar, Associate at Lightspeed.

Since launching in 2018, Pocket FM has been driving serialised audio storytelling and has established itself because the chief in personalised audio leisure.

With over 100,000+ hours of content material, together with 2,000+ unique audio sequence and greater than 400,000 episodes throughout genres and languages, the platform has cultivated a loyal viewers and established itself as a driving drive within the leisure class. The corporate has surpassed $150 million in ARR and is rising at 57% QoQ.

It has clocked over 20 million transactions in 2023. Globally, listeners spend a median of over 115 minutes per day. In 2023 alone, the platform witnessed over 75 billion minutes of streaming worldwide.



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