Vernacular audio content platform, Kuku FM, has raised $25 million in a Series C funding round, led by The Fundamentum Partnership and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with participation from Vertex Ventures. This marks Fundamentum’s second investment in Kuku FM, following their previous Series B1 funding of $21.9 million in September 2022.
Kuku FM plans to utilise the newly acquired funds to fortify its content ecosystem, expand the depth of content across Indian languages to cater to the Bharat 2.0 audience, and enhance its technological capabilities.
“Kuku FM has created a niche category that 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. We are excited to be a partner in Kuku FM’s journey in building a strong national creator-listener community, with specific focus on supporting entrepreneurs,” said Prateek Jain, Principal at Fundamentum Partnership.
“Our partnership with Kuku FM, a leading vernacular audio content platform, aligns with our shared gender and inclusion priorities and aims to empower underrepresented voices, especially those of women, fostering upward mobility and sustainable economic growth,” said Wendy Werner, IFC’s India Country Head.
Founded in 2018 by Lal Chand Bisu, Vikas Goyal, and Vinod Kumar Meena, Kuku FM claims to have 2.5 million paid subscribers. Currently, the platform has 50,000 content creators on its platform, of which 60 percent are said to be women, offering content in seven Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
It claims to have over 150,000 hours of content, across audiobooks, stories, book summaries, courses, and podcasts.
“In our journey towards building a business model focused on Bharat 2.0 segment and creating a sustainable business model with a clear path to profitability, Fundamentum team’s insights and support have been invaluable. We are excited to welcome our new partner International Finance Corporation. We look forward to leveraging IFC’s valuable experience and expertise in scaling up Kuku FM’s business,” said Lal Chand Bisu, Co-founder & CEO of Kuku FM
Vinod Kumar Meena, Co-founder of Kuku FM, added, “The IFC’s vision of creating a more inclusive and diverse creator community is well aligned with our priorities. We will continue to focus on providing sustainable livelihood opportunities for India’s creators and aim to build a network of creators that mirrors our diverse listener community.”
“We want to leverage cutting-edge technology to build India’s most intuitive, immersive, and transparent content platform here at Kuku FM,” said Vikas Goyal, Co-founder and CTO of Kuku FM.
Kuku FM has also garnered support from other notable investors, including Google, Paramark, KRAFTON, Inc, 3one4 Capital, V Cube Ventures, India Quotient, and FounderBank Capital.