Exclusive: Kuku FM Fires 100 Employees To Cut Costs

SUMMARY

The Vertex Ventures-backed startup’s restructuring exercise impacted around 300 on-roll and off-roll employees

The content team, which includes writers and producers, was the most impacted by the exercise

Kuku FM more than doubled its revenue to INR 88 Cr in FY24, while loss narrowed 18% to INR 96 Cr

Mumbai-based audiobook platform Kuku FM fired 80-100 employees in a restructuring exercise this week, sources told Inc42.

Besides, the exercise also impacted contractual employees. Overall, 300 on-roll and off-roll employees lost their jobs, the sources added. The content team, which includes writers and producers, was the most impacted by the exercise.

The number of employees who lost their jobs in the exercise could be even higher, the sources said.

They said that Kuku FM undertook the layoff exercise to cut costs. The startup will most likely leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for creating content.

While Kuku FM declined to comment on the restructuring exercise, calls and messages to cofounder Lal Chand Bisu went unanswered.

Kuku FM more than doubled its revenue to INR 88 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 41.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its loss declined 18% to INR 96 Cr from INR 116 Cr in FY23.

Its marketing expenditure rose 37% year-on-year to INR 48 Cr during the year, while content creation expenses more than tripled to INR 11.2 Cr.

Founded in 2018 by Bisu, Vikas Goyal, and Vinod Kumar Meena, Kuku FM offers audio content across genres such as personal finance, self-help, education, entertainment, news, mythology, spirituality and inspiration. It currently claims to host more than 150K hours of content in various formats on its platform. The startup offers audiobooks in regional languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, among others. It also has content in English language.

The restructuring exercise comes almost a year after the startup bagged $25 Mn in its Series C funding round co-led by The Fundamentum Partnership and International Finance Corporation, with participation from Vertex Ventures.

It has raised a total funding of $72 Mn till date. It also counts Krafton and Shunwei Capital, among its investors.

Incidentally, the restructuring exercise comes almost a month after Kuku FM’s competitor Pocket FM conducted layoffs. As per reports, Pocket FM laid off around 50 employees globally across various functions. Prior to this, Pocket FM had laid off around 200 US-based writers earlier this year.

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