Vernacular audio streaming startup has secured $16 million in debt funding from US-based Silicon Valley Bank, whose banking operations were taken over by First Citizens Bank in March.
The Gurugram-based startup plans to use the funds to strengthen the audio series library, expand the creator community, and accelerate its revenue.
It last raised $65 million in a Series C round in March 2022. With this new debt round, the total capital infusion has increased to $109.5 million.
Founded in 2018 by Rohan Nayak, Nishanth Srinivas, and Prateek Dixit, Pocket FM is an online audio platform that offers over 10,000 hours of audiobooks and podcasts across three Indian languages—Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali.
The company claims it is witnessing strong adoption of audio series and growth in listening time, catering to 80 million listeners globally, with listeners spending an average of 150 minutes every day.
“The debt funding we have secured gives us the resources to continue expanding our content library and build the largest audio series platform globally,” said Rohan Nayak, Co-founder and CEO, Pocket FM.
“This investment is a testament to our growth trajectory and mission to revolutionise the audio entertainment landscape. We are excited to build on this momentum and bring our listeners even more engaging content,” he added.
The company says it clocked 12x revenue growth last year, surpassing $25 million in ARR (annualised revenue run-rate) in October 2022.
“Pocket FM has an innovative vision of audio storytelling and is helping to position it as a mainstream entertainment format,” said Chris Cameron, Senior Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank.
“Its unique approach to audio entertainment and impressive unit economics shows significant revenue potential in a massive addressable market,” he added.
