Indian music streaming service Saavn raises $100m
Tiger Global has led a $100 million Series C round for Indian music streaming service Saavn, with participation from Bertelsmann India Investments, Steadview Capital, Mousse Partners and Liberty Media.
Saavn, which is based in New York but targets Indian listeners and members of the global Indian diaspora, will use the money to scale its service and grow its customer base. It is also planning to launch a video streaming service in the near future.
The company launched in 2006 as a provider of Bollywood films to distribution platforms, including Hulu and YouTube. It launched its streaming service in 2009, and now claims to have 14 million active monthly users, with 20 million expected by the end of the year.
Saavn's focus on Indian media differentiates it from its more generalized competitors like Spotify and Apple Music. The company believes it can offer this demographic a more comfortable experience than other services, in terms of both media offerings and a customized technology platform. One company executive told Techcrunch that the company aims to be "part Spotify, part Pandora, and part Netflix" for the Indian market.
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