Audio platform Kuku FM has raised $21.8 million in a Series B1 funding round led by Nandan Nilekan’s VC firm The Fundamentum Partnership, along with Paramark, KRAFTON Inc, 3one4 Capital, Vertex, Verlinvest and FounderBank Capital.
Earlier this year, Kuku FM had raised $19.5 million in a round led by KRAFTON Inc, along with Google, Verlinvest and others. Kuku FM plans to expand its catalogue, strengthen its content creation ecosystem, and offer more language choices to listeners, focusing on the ‘Bharat’ audience. It targets over 10 million paid subscriptions by the end of 2023.
Founded in 2018 by Lal Chand Bisu, Vikas Goyal, and Vinod Kumar Meena, Kuku FM has 1.5 million paid subscriptions. It offers audio educational content, along with content creation tools for users to create and post content on the platform. It offers content in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Prateek Jain, Principal, The Fundamentum Partnership, said, “The India-digitisation story has opened up opportunities across sectors. The content ecosystem has particularly benefited from rapid growth in internet users. In its four-year journey, Kuku FM has built a business with robust fundamentals, strong monetisation model and a national creator-listener community. Kuku FM’s digital-first, tech-led approach, with its focus on the ‘Bharat’ audience fits ideally into our investment focus. We are excited to partner with Bisu and the team to make Kuku FM a household name.”
Bisu, CEO, Kuku FM, said, “Kuku FM’s growth demonstrates the Indian audience’s appetite for premium, unique, and immersive digital audio experiences. We have seen rapidly growing interest for content in regional languages in Tier II and III cities, semi-urban and rural segments. We aim to continue building a strong and diverse creator network that caters to this segment of the Bharat audience.”
Kuku FM hosts 1.5-plus lakh hours of content in various formats including audiobooks, stories, book summaries, courses, and podcasts. It covers genres including fiction and non-fiction audio books, personal finance, self-help education, entertainment, news, mythology, spirituality,and learning, among others.