Abu Dhabi’s ADIA is in discussions to support Pocket FM in a substantial new funding round as the Indian audio-storytelling platform expands its presence in the U.S., according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The ongoing talks for the new round come after Pocket FM recently secured approximately $100 million in a separate funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, the sources revealed while requesting anonymity as the details are not public yet.
Lightspeed Venture Partners was previously reported to be engaging in investing in Pocket FM last year. The negotiations with ADIA and the completion of the recent round haven’t been reported before.
The funding talks follow a rapid growth in revenue at the Indian startup, which offers serialized fiction and non-fiction content in genres like romance, self-help, and motivation. By the end of last year, its annual revenue run rate had surpassed $160 million, a significant increase from a year earlier.
ADIA has not responded immediately to a request for comment, and Pocket FM has stated it refrains from commenting on market speculations.
Pocket FM, with backers including Tencent, Tanglin, and Times Internet, publicly aimed to achieve an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $100 million by the end of 2023.
Image credits: Bain
Indian startups saw a decrease in large-scale funding rounds last year as major crossover funds like Tiger Global and SoftBank reduced their investments in India and other markets. Many prominent India-focused funds also shifted focus to supporting early-stage startups, according to Bain.
Several sovereign funds, including ADIA, Temasek, GIC, Qatar Investment Authority, increased their investment pace last year, though they reduced check sizes for late-stage startups like PhonePe, Lenskart, and Pharmeasy.
Pocket FM’s expansion into the U.S. and its non-subscription, pay-as-you-go model has been a success. The platform operates on a freemium model, offering long-form episodic storytelling where users pay for preferred content instead of the entire library.
Since early 2022, the platform has utilized a micro-transaction model allowing users to buy coins in local currency for additional episodes beyond the free quota. On average, users spend more than 110 minutes daily on the platform.
Last month, the startup announced a $40 million investment to grow its online reading platform, Pocket Novel. Over 90,000 writers signed up within a month, as per Pocket FM co-founder Rohan Nayak’s LinkedIn post.
