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 Collection 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 Development Fund, Krafton, IFC, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft.
The newest spherical additionally included secondary transactions, with a few of Kuku’s early traders partially exiting by promoting their shares to new traders. This consists of Google, which held below a 2% stake and is now exiting fully, Bisu informed TechCrunch.
India, residence 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 information in India prices lower than a cup of tea. The nation’s government-backed Unified Funds Interface (UPI) — a system that permits prompt digital funds between financial institution accounts — has additionally made digital transactions simple and extensively accessible. This mixture has made the Indian market enticing to international gamers like Instagram and YouTube, whereas additionally giving native platforms like Kuku a aggressive edge in reaching mass audiences by way of content material in native Indian languages.
In 2024, digital media overtook tv for the primary time to turn out to be the most important phase of India’s media and leisure sector, contributing 32% of complete 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 eye of world platforms, with Meta lately launching its personal microdrama sequence within the nation geared toward Gen Z audiences.
Based in 2018, Kuku first gained traction amongst Indian content material customers with its audiobook choices by way of 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 exhibits. 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.
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The startup noticed 2X progress in its common income per person 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 affords entry to its platforms by way of 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.
Customers spend a mean of 100 minutes day by 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 way of third-party content material creators, and it at the moment 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 client 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 (centered on bite-sized microdramas), in line with information from Appfigures shared with TechCrunch.
As of September, Kuku had recorded over 229 million complete downloads, together with 122 million for Kuku FM and 88 million for Kuku TV. Kuku’s apps generated greater than $4 million in client spending, with $2.8 million from Kuku FM and $1.3 million from Kuku TV, the info from Appfigures exhibits.
In 2025 alone, the startup noticed over 134 million downloads — a 533% year-over-year enhance — and $1.9 million in client spending, up 156%, per Appfigures information.
Bisu informed TechCrunch that, when it comes to consumption, Kuku TV is bigger than Kuku FM, accounting for over 60% of complete 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 consists of 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 now have lot of our personal information. We practice these fashions with our personal information, after which really the output is significantly better than exterior instruments,” Bisu informed TechCrunch.
The startup doesn’t use GenAI to autonomously produce content material however as an alternative employs it to help creators in growing 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 affords comparable audio and visible storytelling codecs. Pocket FM has filed a number of copyright infringement lawsuits towards Kuku. Most lately, the Delhi Excessive Court docket restrained Kuku from releasing new episodes of 5 disputed exhibits.
Bisu mentioned that the lawsuits by Pocket FM had been supposed to distract traders. “Each time, each time we do a fundraise, they [Pocket FM] go into some courtroom and so they file a lawsuit. So it’s not the primary time,” Bisu informed TechCrunch.
He added that Kuku has a devoted group that manually evaluations all uploaded content material to test 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] will even go towards enhancing these instruments — we plan to put money into 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 exhibits. 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 line with Appfigures.
Whereas Kuku noticed vital progress in each downloads and client spending in 2025, Pocket FM skilled a 21% year-over-year decline in downloads to 38 million, however a 61% enhance in client 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 folks 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.
