Audio streaming start-up Kuku FM has raised $21.8 million in series B1 funding led by The Fundamentum Partnership. Along with new investors Fundamentum and Paramark, existing investors KRAFTON, Inc, 3one4 Capital, Vertex, Verlinvest and FounderBank Capital also participated in the round.
Funds will be used to expand Kuku FM’s catalogue, strengthen its content creation ecosystem and offer more language choices to listeners, focusing on the ‘Bharat’ audience. The start-up aims to achieve a base of more than 10 million paid subscribers by the end of 2023, said Kuku FM in a statement.
“The India-digitization story has opened up opportunities across sectors. The content ecosystem has particularly benefited from rapid growth in internet users. In its 4-year journey, Kuku FM has built a business with robust fundamentals, strong monetization model and a national creator-listener community,” said Prateek Jain, Principal at Fundamentum Partnership.
Founded in 2018, Kuku FM is currently India’s largest audio platform with more than 1.5 million paid subscribers. It provides proprietary content creation tools to its users, enabling them to create, develop and post content on the platform. The platform has expanded its language offerings to include content in seven Indian languages- Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, the statement said.
“We’ve been impressed with the rapid trajectory of Kuku FM’s growing subscriber base. We believe that the team has taken a lead in content monetization by serving unmet demands of the Bharat audience for locally-created content and building meaningful consumption habits that translate into paid subscriptions,” said Chunsoo Kim, founder and managing partner at Paramark Ventures.
This is Kuku FM’s second fundraiser this year. Earlier in the year, the firm raised $19.5 million led by KRAFTON, Inc. with Google, Verlinvest and other investors participating in the round.