JioSaavn Receives INR 140.35 Cr From Reliance Industries

Mumbai-based audio streaming platform JioSaavn has received INR 140.35 Cr from its parent entity Reliance Industries Limited.

In March 2018, Reliance’s Jio Music and Saavn merged to jointly strengthen their foothold in the Indian music streaming market and their combined valuation was pegged at $1 Bn at the time of the merger. JioSaavn was said to be a media platform of the future with global reach, cross-border original content, an independent artist marketplace with consolidated data and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums.

Over this last year, Reliance has infused multiple tranches into JioSaavn:

• August 2019: Reliance picked up 10,000 equity shares at a premium of INR 1,40,353.10 worth INR 140.35 Cr
• June 2019: Reliance picked up 17,326 equity shares at a premium of INR 1,40,353.10 worth INR 243.17 Cr
• January 2019: Reliance picked up 10,107 equity shares at a premium of INR 1,40,353.10 worth INR 141.85 Cr

Currently, JioSaavn has over 100 Mn monthly active users (MAU) with audience across 150 countries. It offers more than 50 Mn tracks in 15 regional languages which include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Gujarati among others.

Before the merger, Saavn had raised $100 Mn from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Liberty Media and Bertelsmann. The company reportedly has an estimated annual revenue of $9.2 Mn.

The Indian music streaming market is expected to hit a user penetration of 7% by 2023, from the current 6.5%, which, considering India’s current 1.3 Bn population can make a huge difference. According to KPMG’s M&E report 2019, the industry in India posted a solid growth of 13% during FY19 to reach a size of INR 1631 Bn with a CAGR of 11.5% over FY15-FY19.

This year, Spotify launched in India in February. Along with a freemium model with ads and no offline storage, Spotify offers a premium tier at INR 119 per month along with a 30-day free trial for new users. The company claimed 1 Mn downloads in the week after launch.

Two weeks after Spotify, YouTube Music launched in India on March 12. Besides a free ad-supported version, YouTube Music has a premium version for ad-free music for INR 99 per month. The company said it has got 3 Mn downloads within one week of its launch.

With about 100 Mn monthly active users (as of March 2019), Gaana has been leading the online music streaming charts in India.