India's Kuku FM gets $24m Series C
Indian audio content platform Kuku FM has raised USD 24m in Series C funding led by local growth-stage investor The Fundamentum Partnership and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
IFC previously said it would invest up to USD 10m in Mebigo Lab, the parent of Kuku FM. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, an existing investor in the company, also participated in the round.
Kuku FM received a Series B extension of USD 21.8m in September 2022 with Fundamentum taking the lead. Contributions also came from Korean gaming studio Krafton, Paramark Ventures, V Cube Ventures, and Vertex. The first tranche of the Series B, which closed on USD 19.5m in March of the same year, was led by Krafton and featured Vertex, 3one4 Capital, India Quotient, and Shunwei Capital.
Kuku FM was founded in 2018 by Lal Chand Bisu, Vikas Goyal, and Vinod Kumar Meena. Early funding rounds were provided by 3one4, India Quotient, and Shunwei
The company is one of India’s largest digital audio platforms that offers non-music, regional audio content across audiobooks, original series, book summaries, podcasts, and courses focused on non-fiction self-learning content. The content is long-form, broken into bite-sized, audio-only, capsular episodes of 10-15 minutes each like an episodic television show.
As of March 2023, Kuku FM had 2.7m paying users. It primarily caters to listeners outside of top-tier cities, including those in semi-urban and rural segments. On closing the Series B extension, the company had 1.6m paying users and it was nurturing ambitions to reach 10m this year.
"Kuku FM has created a niche category which caters to the unique and rapidly evolving demands of the new digital natives of India. Moreover, Bisu and the team have demonstrated a great understanding in terms of creating a business model with a strong focus on unit economics and robust fundamentals,” Prateek Jain, a principal at Fundamentum, said in a statement.
“We are excited to be a partner in Kuku FM's journey in building a strong national creator-listener community, with a specific focus on supporting entrepreneurs."
The company’s competitors include Pocket FM, said to be the largest audio platform in India. It has received over USD 90m in VC funding since 2018, including a USD 65m round in 2022. Media players like The Time Group, Naver, and Tencent Holdings are among its investors.
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