Pocket FM Secures $103 Million in Funding

India-based audio platform Pocket FM has secured $103 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Stepstone Group. The company, which counts Tencent and Times Internet as backers, aims to expand into Europe and Latin America after looking at positive results in the U.S. market. The company has now raised $196 million across multiple rounds. Pocket FM primarily offers audio series based around short episodes: Users can listen to some series or episodes for free and unlock others by purchasing coins. Instead of adopting a subscription-based approach to let users access all content as Netflix or Spotify do, Pocket FM has found that the pay-as-you-go model is more suitable for the company.