Krafton Invests in Indian Audio Content Platform 'KukuFM'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Krafton announced on the 10th that it participated as the lead investor in the $19.5 million (approximately 23.9 billion KRW) Series B round investment in CuckooFM, India's largest audio content platform for individuals.

This investment is Krafton's second investment in India this year. In addition to Krafton, 3one4 Capital, Vertex Ventures, India Quotient, Founder Bank Capital, and Verlinverst also participated in the investment.

CuckooFM is India's largest audio content platform with 6 million active paying users. It is available via web and app, with the app surpassing 10 million downloads. It offers content in five Indian languages: Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, and Gujarati, providing a total of 150,000 hours of content including audiobooks, book summaries, and podcasts.

It features a wide range of multi-genre audio content suitable for ages from 6-year-old children to people in their 60s, including fiction and nonfiction audiobooks, self-learning educational materials, entertainment, news, poetry, and commercial songs. Currently, 30,000 creators produce content through CuckooFM, half of which is exclusively available only on CuckooFM.

Since last year, Krafton has been seeking opportunities to expand its business by investing in the growth of digital ecosystems in emerging markets including India. It has invested in various digital content creators such as esports companies, game streaming platforms, web novel platforms, social platforms, and game developers, and through this investment, it has secured a partner in the audio content sector.

Son Hyun-il, CEO of Krafton India, said, "CuckooFM is rapidly building a strong creator and listener ecosystem by utilizing diverse and abundant local intellectual property (IP)." He added, "We believe that the growth of Indian IP and content in Indian regional languages will open up significant long-term revenue opportunities not only in India but globally."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.