- In September, Pocket FM’s co-founder said that the company had doubled its annualised revenue to $500 million, and credited the growth to AI usage
- AI is its latest pitch. Over the last few years the company has tried several formats and dropped most of them soon after
- Former employees, investors, and competitors say some of the numbers rest on flattering assumptions
- Meanwhile, its closest rival Kuku has filed for an IPO
“Institutional investors don’t go by numbers on X,” said Pranav Pai, founding partner of the early-stage venture-capital firm 3one4 Capital.
That hasn’t stopped founders from sharing them anyway. This includes Rohan Nayak, co-founder of Bengaluru-based audio-series company Pocket FM, who posted his company’s numbers on 10 September. Strikingly, Pocket FM seems to have doubled its annualised revenue to over $500 million (~Rs 4,500 crore) in a year. The reason, wrote Nayak, is the company’s decision to produce all its content using AI.
This is the latest explanation for the company’s growth.
It raisedTech CrunchAudio platform Pocket FM bags $103M in funding as it eyes global expansion $103 million in early 2024 as part of its series D fundraising round, as an audio platform. By mid-2025, it was looking to raise again and positioned itself as being in the “business of IP”, a former employee recalled. But when that fell through, it ventured into the market again, now branding itself as an AI-led business.
“AI is the flavour of the town,” said an industry executive. “If you talk about it, it’s easier to fundraise and get media mentions.” In a market where a new format is in vogue every few months, Pocket FM has made it a habit to chase each one, albeit dropping most of them just as quickly. For instance, Pocket Novels, a reading app launched in February 2024, was scaled back within 18 months. “The platform is still live, but we moved our community of writers to Pocket FM,” said Nayak in a conversation with The Ken.
Similarly, microdrama app Pocket TV was shut down in India in October 2025, only a few months after it started.
The company was last valued at around $750 million, and is currently seeking a valuation of $1.5–2 billion.
Not everyone was impressed by the numbers in the post, though. “Founders who post them invite questions they then have to answer in public. If you have time to do that, then things are going wrong,” said an investor in the space. Several people, including former employees, investors, and competitors that The Ken spoke with, found some of the numbers in the post hard to believe.
Credits
Pocket FM won’t stop throwing things at the wall
Shriya Sahni
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