Podimo raises €44M to show up the amount on its Netflix-style podcasting platform

We’re quick approaching half a billion people listening to podcasts, and in the present day one of many impartial gamers hoping to money in on that exercise has introduced some funding to develop.

Podimo, the Copenhagen-based podcasting startup that’s constructed round a Netflix-style month-to-month subscription price, has raised one other €44 million ($48 million at in the present day’s charges) in funding, an all-equity spherical that it will likely be utilizing to increase throughout the entire of its enterprise: it will likely be enhancing manufacturing instruments; increasing its distribution community alongside its personal platform; and going deeper into localization.

Podimo is at present out there in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, and Latin America — the place it fees between $5 and $7 per thirty days to listeners, and better charges to creators to make use of its instruments — and the plan is so as to add extra nations to that listing.

The funding comes after a 12 months that has seen Podimo’s common engagement per consumer rise to twenty hours per thirty days, and its subscription base develop by 80% — though in an interview, Morten Strunge, the CEO and founder, declined, a number of instances, to reveal an precise subscriber quantity. He stated there are round 350 exhibits printed weekly, with solely round “a handful” of creators making a number of exhibits, that means it has round 350 creators utilizing the platform in the present day.

The Danish Export and Funding Fund (EIFO) is main the spherical, with HighlandX and Augustinus Fabrikker additionally collaborating. Strunge stated that previous to this spherical, the corporate had raised simply over €200 million. (The final spherical, simply over a 12 months in the past in September 2022, was simply over €58 million.)

Strunge declined to reveal valuation, however for some additional context on that: he confirmed it was an upround, and that the corporate is now worthwhile in its residence market of Denmark and is specializing in stepping into the black in every single place else. (For what it’s value, the final estimate on PitchBook was $240 million, however since that determine now precedes the final two funding rounds, it’s not a really correct information right here.)

Podimo’s funding and traction are coming at a tough time for the podcasting trade. Whereas there are clear indicators of the viewers of listeners rising, for these hoping to make a enterprise out of podcasting — “those” contains each the businesses constructing podcasting platforms and instruments, in addition to creators — the numbers nonetheless may not be including up.

In September, the WSJ wrote an illuminating piece about how the percentages appeared stacked in opposition to Spotify’s $1 billion wager on podcasting, an determine that included a bunch of unique (learn: costly) offers with high-profile names, its platform investments and extra. Earlier this 12 months, Google determined to shut down its standalone podcasting app and fold operations into YouTube: a sign that it’s nonetheless on the lookout for the appropriate components to be a success participant within the area. And in June, it emerged that SiriusXM would shut down Stitcher, one of the longstanding, iconic names in podcasting, simply three years after shopping for it.

One notable element about Podimo in that context is that it stays an impartial providing, separate of any bigger platform play, and that doubtlessly provides it extra agility, but in addition a danger of getting crowded out by the enterprise priorities of these greater operations. In any case, it nonetheless depends on different platforms each for direct distribution (as an app), and not directly (to cross submit pods for its creators, to advertise them and extra).

Strunge believes that Podimo’s place as a “one stop shop” helps it stand out from the remainder of the podcasting fray. Creators can use the platform to provide content material (and embody “native” promoting inside it, by means of Podimo’s personal advert enterprise, one among a number of acquisitions it has made over time); distribute it on Podimo itself; use the platform to distribute that content material to different podcasting platforms; after which collect and skim metrics on all of that exercise.

The plan shall be to take this mannequin additional, Strunge stated, with a give attention to ever-more “hyper local” content material. That can embody producing extra content material in numerous languages, and offering extra localised info to individuals.

The localised nature, he added, is one cause why promoting in podcasts is so tough. “More than ninety percent of consumption comes in native languages today,” he stated. “So you have a fragmented supply side. The media industry still has difficulty with scale when serving that.” (And for the file, Podimo has no plans within the instant future to introduce advertising-based tiers, decreasing or eradicating subscription charges, he stated.)

Content material, in the meantime, nonetheless has numerous room for innovation, in his opinion. The corporate has just lately began constructing out what he described as short-form podcasts: six or seven-minute information updates customised for native markets, not in contrast to information briefs that you just may get on conventional radio.

If the mannequin is to maneuver nearer to what’s already on the market out there, the large problem shall be to proceed differentiating itself and whether or not it might achieve this on a worthwhile foundation. And competitors will not be letting up. Taking simply two latest examples, Spotify is now working with OpenAI to create computerized translations of podcasts. And Apple is increasing its many creator instruments.

“Our investment in Podimo fits directly into EIFO’s strategy to contribute to maintaining strong tech companies in Denmark. At the same time, the investment supports our 2024 strategy of making more growth investments in the late phases,” stated Jacob Bratting Pedersen, accomplice in tech and trade investing in EIFO, in an announcement. “We see in Podimo a tech company with big ambitions, and with a super professional team behind it, which can execute on the powerful, international expansion plan. In addition, the podcast market is favored with an underlying growth of an expected 32 percent annually for the next several years. So the market, which is already large today, only looks set to get even bigger quickly.”