A hundred hours of audio that once took Pocket FM about a year to produce can now be made in a single day, according to CEO Rohan Nayak. The company has also doubled its annual revenue run rate to $500 million, and media reports say it is in talks with investors about more capital. TechCrunch links the growth to a wider rollout of AI in production.
From $250 million to $500 million in a year
The annual revenue run rate rose from $250 million to $500 million within a year. In April 2026 the company reported $430 million. The figure is calculated as monthly revenue multiplied by twelve. According to an April report from Mint, Pocket FM is seeking $100 million to $120 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. In an interview with TechCrunch, management did not deny the talks and said Pocket FM does not urgently need the capital. Money from a new funding round would go mainly into further AI development and new entertainment formats. The parent company, Pocket Entertainment, describes itself as profitable, with a positive adjusted cash flow. However, it did not give TechCrunch any figures for profit, cash flow or margins. The company says it does not plan a stock market listing in the next 24 months.
Production about 80 times cheaper
The company is betting on machine production. According to the company, AI now produces 93% of the entire Pocket FM catalogue and 99% of new content, and production costs about 80 times less. The platform uses AI to expand its catalogue quickly. According to the company, over 550,000 authors produce around 2.5 million hours of content a year on it with AI.
Nayak, who co-founded the company, nevertheless does not write off the human input. “We want to create great IPs that last 100 years, and that needs humans,” he told TechCrunch. According to TechCrunch, people still supply the ideas and stories, and AI turns them into finished content. Alongside cheap machine production, the company therefore holds that stories with a long life need human authors.
Micropayments for unlocked episodes
Most revenue comes from listener micropayments. Unlocking episodes brings in an annualised $415 million, advertising about $85 million, and more than 250 million people listen to the platform in over 20 countries. The largest market is the United States, which accounts for about 70% of revenue. The model relies on short episodes that end on a cliffhanger. Listeners who want the next part right away unlock it with coins in the app. Some episodes simply become free to unlock after a waiting period.
Competition and European AI rules
In India, Pocket FM competes with Kuku FM and Pratilipi, according to Mint. Pocket FM also operates in Europe. According to TechCrunch, its growth included entry into the UK, Germany and France. From 2 August 2026, transparency obligations under the AI Act apply in the EU, and in July the European Commission published guidelines on them. Providers of systems that generate synthetic audio must mark their outputs in a machine-readable way. For systems that were already on the market before 2 August, the obligation applies from 2 December 2026. According to the Commission, content created before 2 August 2026 does not have to be labelled retroactively. According to TechCrunch, Pocket FM has trained its own models, including for creative writing and text-to-speech. For a platform that makes most of its catalogue with AI, these rules may bring new requirements for labelling content.
Comments