We’re quick approaching half a billion folks listening to podcasts, and right now one of many impartial gamers hoping to money in on that exercise has introduced some funding to develop.
Podimo, the Copenhagen-based podcasting startup that’s constructed round a Netflix-style month-to-month subscription price, has raised one other €44 million ($48 million at right now’s charges) in funding, an all-equity spherical that will probably be utilizing to broaden throughout the entire of its enterprise: will probably be enhancing manufacturing instruments; increasing its distribution community alongside its personal platform; and going deeper into localization.
Podimo is at the moment accessible in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, and Latin America — the place it expenses between $5 and $7 monthly to listeners, and better charges to creators to make use of its instruments — and the plan is so as to add extra nations to that checklist.
The funding comes after a yr that has seen Podimo’s common engagement per consumer rise to twenty hours monthly, and its subscription base develop by 80% — though in an interview, Morten Strunge, the CEO and founder, declined, a number of occasions, to reveal an precise subscriber quantity. He stated there are round 350 exhibits printed weekly, with solely round “a handful” of creators making a number of exhibits, which means it has round 350 creators utilizing the platform right now.
The Danish Export and Funding Fund (EIFO) is main the spherical, with HighlandX and Augustinus Fabrikker additionally taking part. Strunge stated that previous to this spherical, the corporate had raised simply over €200 million. (The final spherical, simply over a yr in the past in September 2022, was simply over €58 million.)
Strunge declined to reveal valuation, however for some additional context on that: he confirmed it was an upround, and that the corporate is now worthwhile in its residence market of Denmark and is specializing in entering into the black in all places else. (For what it’s price, the final estimate on PitchBook was $240 million, however since that determine now precedes the final two funding rounds, it’s not a really correct information right here.)
Podimo’s funding and traction are coming at a tough time for the podcasting trade. Whereas there are clear indicators of the viewers of listeners rising, for these hoping to make a enterprise out of podcasting — “these” consists of each the businesses constructing podcasting platforms and instruments, in addition to creators — the numbers nonetheless may not be including up.
In September, the WSJ wrote an illuminating piece about how the percentages appeared stacked towards Spotify’s $1 billion wager on podcasting, an determine that included a number of unique (learn: costly) offers with high-profile names, its platform investments and extra. Earlier this yr, Google determined to shut down its standalone podcasting app and fold operations into YouTube: a sign that it’s nonetheless on the lookout for the best formulation to be successful participant within the area. And in June, it emerged that SiriusXM would shut down Stitcher, probably the most longstanding, iconic names in podcasting, simply three years after shopping for it.
One notable element about Podimo in that context is that it stays an impartial providing, separate of any bigger platform play, and that doubtlessly provides it extra agility, but in addition a danger of getting crowded out by the enterprise priorities of these larger operations. In spite of everything, it nonetheless depends on different platforms each for direct distribution (as an app), and not directly (to cross publish pods for its creators, to advertise them and extra).
Strunge believes that Podimo’s place as a “one cease store” helps it stand out from the remainder of the podcasting fray. Creators can use the platform to provide content material (and embody “native” promoting inside it, by means of Podimo’s personal advert enterprise, one among a number of acquisitions it has made through the years); distribute it on Podimo itself; use the platform to distribute that content material to different podcasting platforms; after which collect and browse metrics on all of that exercise.
The plan shall be to take this mannequin additional, Strunge stated, with a deal with ever-more “hyper native” content material. That can embody producing extra content material in numerous languages, and offering extra localised info to folks.
The localised nature, he added, is one cause why promoting in podcasts is so difficult. “Greater than ninety p.c of consumption is available in native languages right now,” he stated. “So you’ve got a fragmented provide facet. The media trade nonetheless has problem with scale when serving that.” (And for the report, Podimo has no plans within the instant future to introduce advertising-based tiers, lowering or eradicating subscription charges, he stated.)
Content material, in the meantime, nonetheless has lots of room for innovation, in his opinion. The corporate has not too long ago began constructing out what he described as short-form podcasts: six or seven-minute information updates customised for native markets, not in contrast to information briefs that you just would possibly get on conventional radio.
If the mannequin is to maneuver nearer to what’s already on the market out there, the massive problem shall be to proceed differentiating itself and whether or not it could achieve this on a worthwhile foundation. And competitors shouldn’t be letting up. Taking simply two latest examples, Spotify is now working with OpenAI to create automated translations of podcasts. And Apple is increasing its many creator instruments.
“Our funding in Podimo suits straight into EIFO’s technique to contribute to sustaining robust tech corporations in Denmark. On the similar time, the funding helps our 2024 technique of constructing extra development investments within the late phases,” stated Jacob Bratting Pedersen, companion in tech and trade investing in EIFO, in a press release. “We see in Podimo a tech firm with huge ambitions, and with a brilliant skilled group behind it, which might execute on the highly effective, worldwide enlargement plan. As well as, the podcast market is favored with an underlying development of an anticipated 32 p.c yearly for the following a number of years. So the market, which is already giant right now, solely seems to be set to get even larger shortly.”
