Kuku, an Indian storytelling and digital content platform financially supported by Google, has successfully closed a fresh $85 million investment round aimed at accelerating its scaling strategy and fortifying its audio and video entertainment portfolio. This major capital infusion comes at a time when the competition in South Asia’s fast-evolving, mobile-first content ecosystem is becoming increasingly fierce. The company aims to leverage this funding to expand its reach, strengthen its creative infrastructure, and further engage audiences through dynamic storytelling formats specifically crafted for the diverse Indian market.
The newly announced Series C funding round was spearheaded by Granite Asia—formerly recognized as GGV Capital—and has resulted in Kuku’s market valuation doubling from its previous round, now standing at approximately $500 million. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Lal Chand Bisu confirmed this valuation in a statement to TechCrunch. Other notable contributors to the round include Vertex Growth Fund, Krafton, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft. The round also encompassed secondary share transactions, allowing early investors to partially cash out by transferring shares to new stakeholders. Among the exiting investors was Google, which, according to Bisu, previously held a minor stake of under 2% and has now completely divested its position in the company.
India’s digital ecosystem, home to more than one billion internet users and roughly 700 million smartphone owners, provides a fertile environment for companies like Kuku to thrive. The nation’s digital revolution has been largely propelled by remarkably low mobile data costs and streamlined online micropayment systems. Illustrating this affordability, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently observed that a gigabyte of mobile data in India costs less than an average cup of tea—a metaphor for the country’s unparalleled accessibility to information. Complementing this technological advantage is the government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which enables seamless, instant transactions across bank accounts, erasing traditional frictions associated with online commerce. These factors together have rendered India an attractive destination for global content giants such as YouTube and Instagram, while empowering homegrown platforms like Kuku to engage audiences at scale through localized storytelling in multiple regional languages.
According to an EY report published in March, 2024 marked the first year in which digital media officially surpassed television to become India’s most dominant segment within the broader media and entertainment industry. Digital media accounted for 32% of the total industry revenue—equivalent to approximately ₹802 billion, or $9.13 billion—and the same report anticipates a robust compound annual growth rate of 11.2% between 2024 and 2027. This milestone reflects a profound shift in consumer behavior, favoring flexible, on-demand, and language-specific entertainment over traditional broadcast content.
In light of such trends, companies like Kuku have begun exploring innovative content formats to meet the dynamic preferences of mobile users. Among its newest experiments are short-form serialized videos known as microdramas—compact, high-engagement storytelling segments intentionally optimized for mobile consumption. This new format has captured the attention of both Indian startups and global digital players alike. Meta, for instance, has already launched microdrama series in India to appeal specifically to the Gen Z segment, demonstrating the growing international recognition of localized digital genres.
Since its inception in 2018, Kuku initially gained widespread recognition through its audiobook platform, Kuku FM, attracting a loyal audience drawn to immersive audio experiences in various Indian languages. Building on that success, the company has since diversified and now operates two flagship offerings: Kuku FM, devoted primarily to audio-first storytelling, and Kuku TV, which specializes in serialized visual stories segmented into short, vertical-format episodes ideal for mobile screens. Collectively, Kuku’s platforms now host content in more than eight Indian languages. Their reach has expanded dramatically—surpassing ten million paid subscribers, a fivefold increase from two million during its previous funding round in 2023.
The company’s trajectory has been underscored by significant financial and operational growth. Bisu revealed that Kuku achieved a twofold increase in average revenue per user and a tenfold surge in overall business performance since its last fundraising, though specific revenue figures were not disclosed. Notably, around 80% of its subscriber base now originates from non-metropolitan or Tier-II and Tier-III regions, confirming its strong resonance beyond India’s major cities. Demographically, about 60% of users are male and 40% female, with the majority spanning the 25-to-35 age group—a category that embodies India’s fast-expanding middle-class consumers.
Kuku’s subscription model is structured around accessible pricing to ensure broad affordability, offering plans at ₹199 (approximately $2) monthly, ₹499 (around $6) quarterly, and ₹1,499 (roughly $17) annually. The quarterly subscription has emerged as the most preferred choice among customers. On average, subscribers devote nearly 100 minutes daily to consuming Kuku’s audio and video content, and more than nine in ten remain active on a month-to-month basis—clear indicators of high engagement and retention.
The company’s content generation strategy relies heavily on its vast network of over 10,000 independent creators, more than half of whom hail from small towns and non-metropolitan districts. Kuku compensates these creators with roughly ₹400 million—or about $4.5 million—each month, a considerable reinvestment into the creative economy that underscores its role as both a platform and a patron for emerging storytellers.
Among the startup’s suite of applications, Kuku FM continues to dominate in terms of downloads and total consumer spending. Its other platforms include Kuku TV, Kuku Bhakti—an app dedicated to devotional narratives rooted in Hindu mythology—and StoRizz, which focuses exclusively on short microdramas. According to analytics provider Appfigures, Kuku’s ecosystem collectively accumulated over 229 million downloads as of September, comprising 122 million for Kuku FM and 88 million for Kuku TV. Combined consumer spending across these apps surpassed $4 million, including $2.8 million generated by Kuku FM and $1.3 million from Kuku TV. In 2025 alone, Kuku achieved more than 134 million new downloads—a staggering year-over-year growth rate of 533%—alongside a 156% increase in consumer spending, reaching $1.9 million. Despite the popularity of Kuku FM, Bisu confirmed that Kuku TV now represents more than 60% of total content consumption across the brand’s entire portfolio.
The Bengaluru-based company has also invested extensively in cutting-edge artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its newly established GenAI Studio integrates tools from industry-leading AI firms such as OpenAI and ElevenLabs, augmented with proprietary in-house systems developed by Kuku’s own engineers. The studio focuses on multilingual translation, streamlined advertising production, and intelligent creative assistance. As Bisu explained, Kuku’s growing internal dataset allows it to train custom AI models, significantly enhancing creative output compared to standard third-party tools.
While Kuku does not rely on generative AI to independently produce complete content, its technology serves as a creative augmentation tool—helping human creators generate titles, plotlines, dialogue scripts, and visual thumbnails with far greater efficiency. The actual recording, editing, and publishing processes remain manual, preserving the authenticity and emotional nuance of human storytelling. Presently, between 70% and 80% of Kuku’s production pipeline incorporates generative AI-assisted workflows, while the remainder continues to depend on human expertise.
Looking ahead, Bisu revealed that part of the new funding will be allocated to elevate the platform’s entertainment value by collaborating with renowned celebrities from the film and television industries—though he declined to name specific participants at this stage.
Nevertheless, Kuku is operating in an increasingly competitive arena. Its chief domestic rival, Pocket FM, offers comparable audio and video storytelling formats and has lodged several copyright infringement lawsuits against Kuku. Recently, the Delhi High Court temporarily prohibited Kuku from releasing new episodes of five disputed shows. Bisu characterized these legal maneuvers as strategic distractions intended to unsettle investors, asserting that his company has faced similar tactics during previous fundraising cycles.
To safeguard its intellectual property compliance, Kuku employs a dedicated in-house moderation team that carefully reviews all uploaded content. Additionally, it utilizes automated tools capable of detecting whether external or copyrighted material has been improperly used by creators. A portion of the fresh capital will fund the further development of these detection systems, enabling more robust identification of potential rights violations.
Despite Pocket FM’s higher global in-app purchase revenue, data from Appfigures suggests that Kuku surpasses its competitor in total downloads, particularly within India. While most of Kuku’s audience and earnings are rooted domestically, Pocket FM derives 82% of its downloads from India but generates 98% of its revenue from international markets.
Appfigures’ analysis also shows that, during 2025, while Kuku recorded sharp increases in both downloads and consumer spending, Pocket FM experienced a 21% decline in downloads to 38 million but managed a 61% surge in consumer expenditure, reaching an impressive $100 million. The contrast highlights differing strategic orientations: Kuku’s focus on rapid user expansion and audience engagement within India versus Pocket FM’s monetization success primarily abroad.
Bolstered by its latest $85 million raise, Kuku now plans to channel substantial investment into strengthening its AI and data infrastructure, expanding its current workforce of roughly 150 employees, and recruiting new talent in the domains of technology design, product innovation, and creative content. In tandem, the company intends to deepen its collaborations with existing creators, forge new partnerships, and reinforce its leadership in India’s digital storytelling domain while exploring international markets. Kuku has already initiated testing in the Middle East and the United States, with an official U.S. market entry scheduled for 2026. These steps collectively mark a pivotal phase in Kuku’s evolution from a regional digital platform to an aspiring global leader in the mobile storytelling landscape.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/15/indias-kuku-snags-85m-as-mobile-content-wars-intensify/
