Pocket FM, an audio streaming platform, on Wednesday, said it has raised $103 million in a Series D round of funding led by Lightspeed.
The latest round brings the total funding raised by the company to $196.5 million. The round also saw participation from the StepStone Group.
With the new funding, the company plans to push its entry into the US and expand into Europe and Latin America in 2024. The company also plans to expand its exclusive content library.
This comes a year after the company secured $16 million in debt funding from US-based Silicon Valley Bank.
In March 2022, the company raised $65 million in its Series C funding round led by Goodwater Capital, Naver, and existing investor Tanglin Venture Partners in March 2022.
Founded in 2018 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Rohan Nayak and Nishanth Srinivas, Pocket FM is an online marketplace for audio shows and podcasts. The startup claims to offer 100,000+ hours of long-format content, audio shows, stories, novels, podcasts, and knowledge shows in eight languages.
The firm’s direct competitor Kuku FM Audio in September raised $25 million in a Series C funding round, co-led by Nandan Nilekani-backed Fundamentum Partnership and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Megadeals, or deals worth at least $100 million, have been rare in India lately. Only one megadeal, or deal worth at least $100 million, was announced in February this year as investors refrained from making big bets. In comparison, three megadeals were announced in February last year, show data from the DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE report India Deal Review: Q4 2023.
There were only 28 megadeals in India in 2023, down from 64 in 2022, and 120 in 2021.
