Silicon Valley Bank invests $16 million in Gurgaon-based startup Pocket FM

Pocket FM, a Gurgaon-based audio streaming platform, announced today, May 2, that it has raised $16 million in debt funding from the US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The company will use the money for expanding the audio series library, augmenting the creator community, and accelerating revenue, it said in a statement.

"Its unique approach to audio entertainment and impressive unit economics shows significant revenue potential in a massive addressable market. We are excited to work with Pocket FM and support the company's continued growth and success as its banking partner," said Chris Cameron, senior vice president at SVB.

This comes more than a month after SVB collapsed and later became a division of First Citizens Bank. SVB had exposure in at least 21 startups in India although it did not reveal the size of the investment in these startups, according to recent data by global software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based market intelligence platform Tracxn.

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"The debt funding, we have secured gives us the resources to continue expanding our content library and build the largest audio series platform globally. We are excited to build on this momentum and bring our listeners even more engaging content," said Rohan Nayak, co-founder and CEO, Pocket FM.

Earlier, Pocket FM raised funding from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, and Naver Corporation. It received Rs 491 crore last year and the round was led by Goodwater Capital and Naver Corporation.  

Pocket FM was founded in 2018 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Rohan Nayak, Nishanth Srinivas, and Prateek Dixit. The company claims to cater to an 80 million listeners community globally, with listeners spending an average of over 150 minutes daily.

In the same space, another startup Kuku FM raised $5.5 million in a Series A round led by Vertex Ventures, an arm of Singapore-headquartered Temasek Holdings in 2022. In 2019, the social audio platform Headfone raised $750,000 in a seed funding round led by Fosun RZ Capital.