India’s Kuku snags $85M as mobile content wars intensify

Kuku, an Indian storytelling platform backed by Google, has raised $85 million in recent funding because it goals to scale its audio and video content material choices amid intensifying competitors within the South Asian nation’s mobile-first content material market.

The Sequence C spherical, led by Granite Asia (previously GGV Capital), values Kuku at greater than double its earlier valuation to round $500 million, Kuku founder and CEO Lal Chand Bisu confirmed to TechCrunch. The spherical additionally noticed participation from Vertex Progress Fund, Krafton, IFC, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft.

The newest spherical additionally included secondary transactions, with a few of Kuku’s early buyers partially exiting by promoting their shares to new buyers. This contains Google, which held underneath a 2% stake and is now exiting fully, Bisu instructed TechCrunch.

India, dwelling to over a billion web subscribers and round 700 million smartphone customers, is experiencing huge progress in digital content material consumption, pushed by ultra-low information prices and seamless micropayments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lately remarked that 1GB of data in India costs less than a cup of tea. The nation’s government-backed Unified Funds Interface (UPI) — a system that allows on the spot digital funds between financial institution accounts — has additionally made digital transactions straightforward and extensively accessible. This mixture has made the Indian market engaging to world gamers like Instagram and YouTube, whereas additionally giving native platforms like Kuku a aggressive edge in reaching mass audiences by content material in native Indian languages.

In 2024, digital media overtook tv for the primary time to turn into the biggest phase of India’s media and leisure sector, contributing 32% of whole revenues — ₹802 billion (round $9.13 billion), per an EY report (PDF) launched in March. The report additionally initiatives that digital media will develop at a compound annual progress fee of 11.2% between 2024 and 2027.

This progress potential has prompted gamers like Kuku to experiment with new codecs, together with the lately popularized microdramas — brief, serialized video tales designed for cell viewing. The format has caught on throughout Indian startups and even attracted the attention of global platforms, with Meta recently launching its own microdrama series within the nation aimed toward Gen Z audiences.

Based in 2018, Kuku first gained traction amongst Indian content material shoppers with its audiobook offerings by Kuku FM. Since then, it has expanded its product suite and now operates two flagship platforms: Kuku TV, which presents long-form tales as bite-sized episodes in a vertical format, and Kuku FM, which focuses on audio-first reveals. The platforms present content material in additional than eight Indian languages and have surpassed 10 million paid subscribers, the startup mentioned, up from two million on the time of its final spherical in 2023.

The startup noticed 2X progress in its common income per consumer and 10x total progress since its final funding, Bisu mentioned, with out disclosing precise monetary figures. He famous that round 80% of its subscribers are from non-metropolitan cities.

Round 60% of Kuku’s subscriber base is male and 40% feminine, Bisu mentioned, including that the majority subscribers are between the ages of 25 and 35.

Kuku provides entry to its platforms by paid subscription plans, together with ₹199 (round $2) per thirty days, ₹499 (about $6) per quarter, and ₹1,499 (roughly $17) per 12 months. Bisu mentioned that the quarterly plan is the most well-liked amongst customers.

Shoppers spend a mean of 100 minutes every day on Kuku’s platforms, the founder mentioned, including that over 90% of the startup’s subscribers stay lively month over month.

Kuku will get content material by third-party content material creators, and it presently has round 10,000 creators on board. Of them, over 50% are from small cities and non-metro cities, Bisu mentioned. He famous that the startup pays round ₹400 million (roughly $4.5 million) month-to-month to its creators.

The Kuku FM app has led in downloads and shopper spending among the many startup’s portfolio, which incorporates Kuku TV, Kuku Bhakti (a devotional app that includes tales based mostly on Hindu mythology), and StoRizz (targeted on bite-sized microdramas), in keeping with information from Appfigures shared with TechCrunch.

As of September, Kuku had recorded over 229 million whole downloads, together with 122 million for Kuku FM and 88 million for Kuku TV. Kuku’s apps generated greater than $4 million in shopper spending, with $2.8 million from Kuku FM and $1.3 million from Kuku TV, the info from Appfigures reveals.

In 2025 alone, the startup noticed over 134 million downloads — a 533% year-over-year improve — and $1.9 million in shopper spending, up 156%, per Appfigures information.

Bisu instructed TechCrunch that, by way of consumption, Kuku TV is bigger than Kuku FM, accounting for over 60% of whole utilization.

The Bengaluru-based startup has constructed a GenAI studio to streamline content material creation, using AI instruments for multilingual translation and on-demand advert manufacturing. The studio contains software program from AI firms together with OpenAI and ElevenLabs, in addition to a few of Kuku’s in-house instruments.

“We’re shifting many of the focus in the direction of our instruments, as a result of now we’ve lot of our personal information. We prepare these fashions with our personal information, after which truly the output is a lot better than exterior instruments,” Bisu instructed TechCrunch.

The startup doesn’t use GenAI to autonomously produce content material however as an alternative employs it to help creators in creating audio and video tales for its platforms. The instruments assist generate titles, plots, scripts, dialogues, and thumbnails, whereas the precise audio and video manufacturing is finished manually, Bisu mentioned.

He added that 70% to 80% of the work at Kuku is powered by GenAI, with the remaining 20% nonetheless completed manually.

With out naming particular people, Bisu mentioned that the startup plans to make use of the brand new funding to reinforce its content material by bringing in celebrities, together with movie and tv personalities.

Nonetheless, Kuku faces stiff competitors from native rivals, most notably Pocket FM, which provides related audio and visible storytelling codecs. Pocket FM has filed a number of copyright infringement lawsuits in opposition to Kuku. Most lately, the Delhi Excessive Courtroom restrained Kuku from releasing new episodes of 5 disputed reveals.

Bisu mentioned that the lawsuits by Pocket FM have been meant to distract buyers. “Each time, each time we do a fundraise, they [Pocket FM] go into some court docket and so they file a lawsuit. So it’s not the primary time,” Bisu instructed TechCrunch.

He added that Kuku has a devoted staff that manually critiques all uploaded content material to verify for copyright violations. The startup has additionally developed instruments to detect whether or not creators are importing copyrighted or third-party content material.

“A few of the cash [from this round] may even go towards bettering these instruments — we plan to spend money on know-how that may establish when a creator is utilizing another person’s work,” Bisu mentioned.

In comparison with Pocket FM, Kuku had extra downloads however noticed considerably decrease in-app buy income, Appfigures information reveals. Whereas India accounts for almost all of Kuku’s downloads and earnings, Pocket FM generates 82% of its downloads from India however earns 98% of its income from exterior the nation, in keeping with Appfigures.

Whereas Kuku noticed important progress in each downloads and shopper spending in 2025, Pocket FM skilled a 21% year-over-year decline in downloads to 38 million, however a 61% improve in shopper spending to $100 million, per Appfigures information.

That mentioned, Kuku plans to make use of its newest funding to reinforce its AI and information infrastructure, develop its workforce of 150 individuals by hiring new expertise in know-how and content material, and deepen creator partnerships and scale in India and past. The startup is already testing its choices within the Center East and the U.S., with plans to scale within the U.S. in 2026.