Indian Kuku Raises $85 Million to Expand its Audio and Visual Content

New Funding: India's Kuku, a storytelling platform backed by Google, has raised $85 million in new funding to expand its audio and visual content offerings, amid intensifying competition in South Asia's mobile-first digital content market. Granite Asia (formerly GGV Capital) led the Series C round, which more than doubled Kuku's previous valuation to around $500 million, Kuku founder and CEO Lal Chand Bisu confirmed to TechCrunch. Vertex Growth Fund, Krafton, IFC, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft also participated in the round.

Secondary Deals: The latest round also included secondary deals, with some of Kuku's early investors partially exiting by selling their shares to new investors. This includes Google, which owned less than 2% of the shares and is now fully exiting, Bisu told TechCrunch.

Massive Growth: India, with over a billion internet subscribers and around 700 million smartphone users, is experiencing massive growth in digital content consumption, driven by ultra-low data costs and seamless micro-payments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently stated that 1GB of data in India costs less than a cup of tea. The country's government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – a system that enables instant digital payments between bank accounts – has also made digital transactions easy and widely accessible. This combination has made the Indian market attractive to global players like Instagram and YouTube, while also giving local platforms like Kuku a competitive edge in reaching broad audiences through content in local Indian languages.

Digital Media: In 2024, digital media surpassed television for the first time to become the largest segment in India's media and entertainment sector, contributing 32% of the total revenue – 802 billion rupees (approximately $9.13 billion), according to a (PDF) report by EY in March. The report also predicts that digital media will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.2% between 2024 and 2027.

Micro-dramas: The Future of Mobile Entertainment in India

Micro-dramas: This potential growth has pushed players like Kuku to experiment with new formats, including recently popularized micro-dramas. These stories are short, serialized video series, with each episode lasting from one to five minutes, specifically designed for mobile viewing in portrait mode. These dramas feature emotionally charged content and cliffhanger endings that encourage binge-watching, making them addictive and suitable for users with limited time looking for quick, intense entertainment (Redseer, June 26, 2025).

This Format Spread: This format has spread across Indian startups and even attracted the attention of global platforms, with Meta recently launching its own micro-drama series "Party of Two" in the country, targeting Gen Z audiences and encouraging creative expression (About.fb.com, September 15, 2025).

Growth of the Micro-drama Market: The micro-drama market in India is expected to grow tenfold by 2030, becoming an opportunity worth $10 billion USD (Garage Productions, August 26, 2025). The Chinese micro-drama market was valued at between $5.5 and $7 billion in 2024, with over 400 million smartphone users engaging with this content (Redseer, June 26, 2025). India has seen over 50 million downloads of micro-drama apps, and more than 15 apps began offering this content by May 2025 (Redseer, June 26, 2025). Indian micro-drama platforms raised $44 million in 2025 alone, a 55% increase from the previous year (Finshots, August 4, 2025).

Kuku's Growth and Products

Kuku's Founding: Kuku, founded in 2018, initially gained traction among Indian content consumers through its audiobook offerings via Kuku FM. Since then, it has expanded its product portfolio and now operates two main platforms: Kuku TV, which offers long-form stories as short, vertical-format episodes, and Kuku FM, which focuses on audio-first content. The platforms offer content in over eight Indian languages, and paid subscribers have surpassed 10 million, the startup reported, up from two million at the time of its last round in 2023.

Double Growth: The startup has seen a twofold increase in its average revenue per user and an overall 10x growth since its last funding, Bisu said, without disclosing actual financial figures. He noted that about 80% of its subscribers are from non-urban cities.

Subscriber Base: Bisu said about 60% of Kuku's subscriber base is male and 40% female, adding that most subscribers are between 25 and 35 years old.

Paid Subscription Plans: Kuku offers access to its platforms through paid subscription plans, including 199 rupees (about $2) monthly, 499 rupees (about $6) quarterly, and 1499 rupees (about $17) annually. Bisu said the quarterly plan is the most popular among users.

Average Consumption Time: Consumers spend an average of 100 minutes daily on Kuku's platforms, the founder said, adding that over 90% of the startup's subscribers remain monthly active.

External Content Creators: Kuku sources content through external content creators, and currently has about 10,000 creators. Of these, over 50% are from small towns and non-urban cities, Bisu said. He noted that the startup pays about 400 million rupees (about $4.5 million) monthly to content creators.

Artificial Intelligence in Content Production

Kuku FM App: The Kuku FM app has led in downloads and consumer spending among the startup's product suite, which includes Kuku TV, Kuku Bhakti (a religious app featuring stories based on Hindu mythology), and StoRizz (focused on short micro-dramas), according to Appfigures data shared with TechCrunch.

Total Downloads: As of September, Kuku recorded over 229 million total downloads, including 122 million for Kuku FM and 88 million for Kuku TV. Kuku's apps collectively generated over $4 million in consumer spending, with $2.8 million from Kuku FM and $1.3 million from Kuku TV, Appfigures data shows.

Downloads and Spending Growth: In 2025 alone, the startup saw over 134 million downloads – a 533% year-over-year increase – and $1.9 million in consumer spending, a 156% increase, according to Appfigures data.

Kuku TV Consumption: Bisu told TechCrunch that in terms of consumption, Kuku TV is larger than Kuku FM, accounting for over 60% of total usage.

AI Studio: The Bengaluru-based startup has built a generative Artificial Intelligence studio to streamline content creation, using AI tools for multilingual translation and on-demand ad production. The studio includes software from AI companies including OpenAI and ElevenLabs, as well as some of Kuku's internal tools.

Kuku's Focus on Its Tools: Bisu told TechCrunch: "We are shifting most of our focus towards our own tools, because we now have a lot of our own data. We are training these models with our own data, and then the output is much better than external tools."

AI Usage: He added that the startup does not use generative Artificial Intelligence to produce content independently, but rather uses it to assist content creators in developing audio and visual stories for its platforms. The tools help create titles, plots, scripts, dialogues, and thumbnails, while the actual audio and visual production is done manually, Bisu said.

AI Reliance Percentage: He added that 70% to 80% of the work at Kuku relies on generative Artificial Intelligence, while the remaining 20% is still done manually.

Challenges, Competition, and Expansion Plans

Content Enhancement: Without naming specific individuals, Bisu said the startup plans to use the new funding to enhance its content by bringing in celebrities, including film and TV personalities.

Intense Competition: However, Kuku faces intense competition from local rivals, most notably Pocket FM, which offers similar forms of audio and visual stories. Pocket FM has filed several copyright infringement lawsuits against Kuku. Recently, the Delhi High Court restrained Kuku from releasing new episodes of five disputed shows.

Lawsuits: Bisu said the lawsuits from Pocket FM were aimed at distracting investors. Bisu told TechCrunch: "Every time we raise funding, they [Pocket FM] go to some court and file a lawsuit. So, this is not the first time."

Content Review: He added that Kuku has a dedicated team that manually reviews all uploaded content to check for copyright infringements. The startup has also developed tools to detect whether content creators are uploading copyrighted or third-party content.

Tool Improvement: Bisu said: "Some of the funds [from this round] will also go towards improving these tools – we plan to invest in technology that can identify when a content creator is using someone else's work."

Kuku vs. Pocket FM Comparison: Compared to Pocket FM, Kuku achieved more downloads but saw significantly less revenue from in-app purchases, Appfigures data shows. While India accounts for the majority of Kuku's downloads and earnings, Pocket FM generates 82% of its downloads from India but earns 98% of its revenue from outside the country, according to Appfigures.

Kuku's Growth and Pocket FM's Decline: While Kuku saw significant growth in both downloads and consumer spending in 2025, Pocket FM experienced a 21% year-over-year decrease in downloads to 38 million, but saw a 61% increase in consumer spending to $100 million, according to Appfigures data.

Kuku's Future Plans: However, Kuku plans to use its latest funding to enhance its AI and data infrastructure, expand its 150-person workforce by hiring new tech and content talent, deepen content creator partnerships, and expand within and outside India. The startup is already testing its offerings in the Middle East and the United States, with plans for US expansion in 2026.