Kuku FM Ropes In Investment Bankers For $200 Mn IPO: Report

Kuku FM Ropes In Investment Bankers For A $200 Mn IPO: Report

SUMMARY

Kuku FM's parent has said to have appointed bankers Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Bank and Morgan Stanley to helm its potential $200 Mn IPO

The startup plans to utilise the fresh capital raised via the IPO to expand its content library and strengthen its regional-language offerings

The development comes a couple of months after Kuku raised its largest cheque of $85 Mn in its Series C round from Granite Asia

Amid the ongoing Indian startup IPO boom, audio OTT soonicorn Kuku FM is now said to be bracing for a potential public listing soon. As per a report by Bloomberg, the startup’s parent entity, Mebigo Labs Pvt Ltd, has appointed bankers Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Bank and Morgan Stanley to helm its potential $200 Mn (about INR 1,820 Cr) IPO.

The report further adds that the startup broadly plans to utilise the fresh capital raised via the IPO to expand its content library and strengthen its regional-language offerings.

The composition of the potential composition of the IPO is yet to be discerned. Kuku FM has declined to comment on queries shared by Inc42.

Important to highlight that the startup is yet to undertake the first pre-requisite step for an IPO in India, that is to convert into a public entity. Hence, there isn’t much clarity on the timeline for the proposed IPO.

The development comes a couple of months after Kuku raised its largest cheque of $85 Mn in its Series C round from Granite Asia. Besides, it also counts investors like 3one4 Capital, Fundamentum and India Quotient on its cap table.

Since 2018, the audio OTT platform has been expanding its catalogue of offerings into audiobooks around finance, well-being, drama series, among others. Offering its content across languages like Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali, the startup claims to have more than 1 Cr listeners and creators on its platform.

The Lal Chand Bisu-led startup has been aggressively shoring up its content library ahead of its bid to go public. Recently, it ventured into the micro drama arena with its short video app, Kuku TV. Besides, it has also built an in-house GenAI studio that leverages AI to produce content.

On the financial front, Kuku FM managed to bring down its losses to INR 96 Cr in FY24, 18% lower than INR 116.5 Cr loss incurred in the previous fiscal. Operating revenue more than doubled to INR 88 Cr in the fiscal under review, from INR 41.1 Cr it had reported in FY23.

The startup is yet to disclose its financial performance for the fiscal year FY25. However, in the fiscal, it laid off 80-100 employees in a restructuring exercise, with an agenda to bring down the costs.