75 Employees Will Be Let Go by Pocket FM in Another Layoff Round

A media report claims that as part of a reorganisation plan, audio series provider Pocket FM is laying off about 75 workers. The company has laid off employees twice in the last six months in an effort to reduce expenses and get closer to profitability.

According to reports, Pocket FM terminated contracts with 200 freelance writers earlier in July and fired off 50 staff in October 2024. According to a corporate spokesman who confirmed the recent layoffs to a media outlet, Pocket FM has made the difficult choice to let go of over 75 of our valued team members as part of the company's drive to create a more lucrative and efficient organisation.

According to sources, since the process is still ongoing, the final number of layoffs may be greater. Despite its difficulties, the spokesperson stated that this action was required to guarantee the organisation's long-term viability and prosperity. The layoffs follow rival Kuku FM's reported November 2024 layoffs of roughly 100 workers. More than 200 million people have signed up for Pocket FM, and in 2024 alone, they streamed more than 100 billion minutes of material. Additionally, the business reports that users have spent an average of 115 minutes per day using the app, and that over 45 million transactions have been conducted this year.

How Pocket FM Operates?

Founded in 2018 by Rohan Nayak, Prateek Dixit, and Nishanth Srinivas, Pocket FM offers more than 75,000 audio series in a variety of genres, including fantasy, romance, and thrillers. Both English and a number of Indian languages, such as Bengali, Tamil, and Hindi, are available on the platform.

It uses a freemium business strategy, giving users 15 minutes to view each of its audio series for free before allowing them to buy coins for INR 50–100. New episodes can be unlocked with these coins.

Financial Dynamics of Pocket FM

For the fiscal year 2023–2024 (FY24), Pocket FM recorded consolidated revenue of INR 1,051.97 crore, a remarkable six-fold growth over the previous year's revenue of INR 176.36 crore. At the same time, the company's losses dropped from INR 208 crore in the previous fiscal year to INR 165 crore.

Subscription income from micro transactions, which increased to INR 934.73 crore in FY24 from just INR 160 crore the year before, was said to be the main driver of the revenue surge. Anurag Sharma, chief financial officer of Pocket FM, informed a media outlet that the company anticipates an 80% increase in revenue this year (FY25).

Tencent, Lightspeed, Goodwater Capital, Stepstone Group, Times Group, Tanglin Venture Partners, and South Korean internet titan Naver are among the investors in Pocket FM. When the firm raised $103 million in March, led by Lightspeed, its latest valuation was $750 million. To date, it has raised $196.5 million in funding.

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