India-based audio platform Pocket FM has secured $103 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed Ventures with participation from Stepstone Group.
Pocket FM offers audio series with several short episodes and aim to become the “Netflix for audio” globally.
That means you can’t use the coins you bought on Pocket FM to unlock content Pocket Novel products and vice versa.
Pocket FM also has a limited audiobook vertical where it competes with the likes of Audible with a similar pay-to-unlock strategy.
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADIA has held talks with Pocket FM for a potential mega funding round, TechCrunch reported last week.
TechCrunch reported about Lightspeed Venture Partners engaging to invest in Pocket FM last year.
ADIA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, whereas Pocket FM said it refrains from commenting on market speculations.
Pocket FM operates on a freemium model, leveraging long-form episodic storytelling to give users the choice to pay only for content they prefer rather than the entire library.
The startup announced last month that it will invest $40 million to grow its online reading platform Pocket Novel.
More than 90,000 writers had signed up to the app in less than a month, Pocket FM co-founder Rohan Nayak wrote on LinkedIn this week.
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In a sea of AI-enabled gadgets at CES, the rabbit r1 (all lowercase, they insist) stands out not just for its high-vis paint job and unique form factor, but because of its dedication to the bit.
“The phone is an entertainment device, but if you’re trying to get something done it’s not the highest efficiency machine.
After all, that’s what our so-called “AI assistants” have supposedly been doing for the last five or six years.
Even so, even if the rabbit r1 is better or cuter, people prefer simplicity and convenience.
Why would they pay money to carry a second device when their first one does most of those tasks?
Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups.
This week Becca and Dom are joined by Charlie Hernandez, the founder and CEO of My Pocket Lawyer, an online platform that is meant to democratize access to legal advice and guidance for those that might not be able to afford a lawyer.
Hernandez talked about why he decided to forgo a traditional career in law and use his degree instead to tackle this problem.
The hosts also touched on challenges that the startup might run into regarding gaining customer trust and their remaining confusion on how a product like this will make money.
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