Audio OTT platform Pocket FM appoints former PhonePe executive Suyog Gothi as its vice president and India country head. Pocket FM announced in a press release that Gothi will head its India operations with cofounders Rohan Nayak and Nishanth KS.
His duties will include managing operations in India and devising strategies to increase Pocket FM’s market dominance further. He will be instrumental in the company’s growth plan across India, emphasizing expanding the user and writer community and catalyzing sustainable development.
Gothi, a graduate of IIT Madras, was leading the merchant lending division at PhonePe and helped scale up its UPI payments business.
In the statement, Gothi said, “I am excited about moving forward with our mission to promote innovation and giving voice across America’s auditory diversity.” Nishanth KS, cofounder and COO at Pocket FM said, “Gothi’s past achievements, along with his strategic outlook, complement our plans for growth and development very well.
Pocket FM is an audio content startup founded in 2018 by Nayak, Prateek Dixit, and Nishanth KS. It provides long-format audio shows, stories, novels, and podcasts. The platform has the help of writers and voice actors who are creating audio content in various Indian languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla Hindi, and Kannada Marathi.
The soiled balance sheet of the startup’s India affiliate scaled down its net loss by 56% year-on-year (YoY) from INR 171.6 million in FY20 to INR 75 Crs. Its operating revenue grew by 643% YoY from INR17Cr in FY22 to INRSGKrof CrinFY.
Pocket FM borrowed an amount of $ 16 Mn from Silicon Valley Bank last year to improve its audio library, reinforcing the populace within it and increasing revenue. Before that, the startup received a total funding of $93.5 Mn from investors such as Lightspeed, Goodwater Capital, Times Internet, Tencent, and others.
