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Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the UAE's largest sovereign wealth fund, is in talks with India’s audio storytelling platform Pocket FM to invest around $1.2 billion, The Economic Times reported.
The talks follow Bangaluru-based Pocket FM’s announcement on Wednesday that it had raised $103 million in Series D funding led by US venture capital firm Lightspeed. Pocket FM has secured $196.5 million in funding to date.
First reported by the US-based news website TechCrunch, ADIA’s talks with Pocket FM come at a time as the Indian firm is poised to push into the American market, with further expansion into Europe and LATAM markets in 2024.
Talks between ADIA and Pocket FM have been ongoing for more than a month, The Economic Times from India further reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The report further said the online streaming platform was close to finalising a new fundraising deal, which would catapult it into the unicorn club of privately held tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.
Since launching in 2018, Pocket FM said it has surpassed $150 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) and is growing at 57% quarter-on-quarter.
ADIA, which invests on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi, has been eyeing investments in Asia in recent weeks, with the London-based Financial Times reporting last week that the sovereign wealth fund has been looking to snap up at a discount Western investors’ stakes in funds managed by Hong Kong-based PAG as US investors cut their China exposure.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
