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We are degenerate approachinghalf a billion peoplelistening to podcasts , and today one of the independent players hoping to cash in in on that action has denote some funding to grow .
Podimo , the Copenhagen - based podcasting inauguration that ’s build around a Netflix - manner monthly subscription fee , has farm another € 44 million ( $ 48 million at today ’s rates ) in funding , an all - equity unit of ammunition that it will be using to dilate across the whole of its business : It will be enhance product tools , expanding its distribution net alongside its own platform and going deeper into localization .
Podimo is currently available in Denmark , Norway , Germany , Spain , The Netherlands , Finland and Latin America — where it charges between $ 5 and $ 7 per month to listeners — and the architectural plan is to total more res publica to that list .
The financing comes after a year that has take care Podimo ’s mean mesh per user rise to 20 hours per month , and its subscription base uprise by 80 % — although in an interview , Morten Strunge , the chief executive officer and beginner , declined , several times , to disclose an actual reader number . He said there are around 350 show publish weekly , with only around “ a handful ” of creators making multiple shows , intend it has around 350 creators using the platform today .
The Danish Export and Investment Fund ( EIFO ) is leading the round , with HighlandX and Augustinus Fabrikker also participating . Strunge said that prior to this unit of ammunition , the company had raised just over € 200 million . ( The last round , just over a year ago inSeptember 2022 , was just over € 58 million . )
Strunge go down to disclose valuation , but for some further context on that he confirmed it was an upround , and that the ship’s company is now profitable in its home market of Denmark and is focus on getting into the black everywhere else . ( For what it ’s worth , the last idea on PitchBook was$240 million , but since that figure now precede the last two backing rung , it ’s not a very precise guidebook here . )
Podimo ’s backing and traction are come at a tricky time for the podcasting diligence . While there are exculpated signs of the audience of attender growing , for those hop to make a concern out of podcasting — “ those ” includes both the companies build up podcast platforms and shaft , as well as Godhead — the numbers still might not be tote up up .
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In September , theWSJwrote an illuminating composition about how the betting odds appeared stacked against Spotify ’s $ 1 billion bet on podcasting , a name that include a emcee of undivided ( read : expensive ) deals with high - profile names , its platform investments and more . before this year , Google decided toshut down its standalone podcasting appand fold surgical operation into YouTube : a sign that it ’s still looking for the right normal to be a hit player in the space . And in June , it issue that SiriusXM wouldshut down Stitcher , one of the most longstanding , iconic names in podcasting , just three years after buy it .
One illustrious point about Podimo in that context is that it stay on an autonomous offer , separate of any larger platform play , and that potentially give it more lightsomeness , but also a risk of getting crowded out by the business priorities of those bigger operation . After all , it still relies on other platforms both for verbatim statistical distribution ( as an app ) , and indirectly ( to cross - post pods for its creators , to encourage them and more ) .
Strunge believes that Podimo ’s position as a “ one - period store ” helps it stand out from the eternal sleep of the podcasting fray . God Almighty can employ the platform to produce content ( and include “ aboriginal ” advertising within it , by fashion of Podimo ’s own ad job , one of severalacquisitionsit has made over the years ) ; distribute it on Podimo itself ; apply the platform to deal that content to other podcasting platforms ; and then cumulate and read metrics on all of that action .
The plan will be to take this model further , Strunge said , with a focusing on ever - more “ hyper local ” subject . That will admit farm more content in different languages , and providing more focalise information to the great unwashed .
The localize nature , he sum , is one understanding why advertising in podcasts is so tricky . “ More than 90 % of wasting disease fare in aboriginal languages today , ” he said . “ So you have a fragmented supply side . The media industry still has difficulty with scale when attend to that . ” ( And for the record , Podimo has no plans in the prompt future to introduce ad - based tier , reducing or murder subscription rate , he said . )
subject matter , meanwhile , still has a quite a little of room for founding , in his opinion . The company has recently started build out what he described as curt - variety podcasts : six- or seven - minute word update custom-make for local markets , not unlike news brief that you might get on traditional radio set .
If the simulation is to move closer to what is already out there in the market , the heavy challenge will be to continue differentiating itself and whether it can do so on a profitable basis . And contender is not letting up . Taking just two recent illustration , Spotify is now working with OpenAIto produce automatic displacement of podcasts , andAppleis flesh out its many creator tool .
“ Our investing in Podimo fits directly into EIFO ’s scheme to add to maintaining strong tech company in Denmark . At the same time , the investment funds supports our 2024 strategy of make more growth investments in the late phases , ” enounce Jacob Bratting Pedersen , collaborator in tech and industry investing in EIFO , in a statement . “ We see in Podimo a tech company with braggart dream , and with a super professional squad behind it , which can run on the powerful , international expansion plan . In addition , the podcast market is favored with an fundamental emergence of an expected 32 per centum annually for the next several years . So the market , which is already large today , only await coiffe to get even bigger quickly . ”
Updated to correct details on Almighty pricing .
