Gaana will use the capital to leverage Artificial Intelligence to personalise music experiences for consumers

Gaana, one of the oldest and largest digital music services in India, is raising US$115 million led by Chinese internet behemoth Tencent, which operates Southeast Asia’s leading music streaming platform Joox.

Gaana’s early-stage investor Times Internet will also co-invest.

Gaana — which claims to have 60 million monthly active users —  will use the capital to further invest into technology to use Artificial Intelligence to personalise music experiences for each consumer, further develop its subscription product for paying users, and develop aligned music experiences for consumers.

Also Read: Indian music streaming website Gaana.com acquires Musicfellas.com

Gaana was incubated seven years ago by Times Internet. As per an official statement, Gaana its mobile app grew 700 per cent in consumption over the past four years. About 88 per cent of Gaana’s monthly users come from India.

Prashan Agarwal, CEO of Gaana, said: “Music streaming is the future of music consumption globally, and in India, we’re only 10 per cent of the way towards building a business useful for 500 million Indians. Tencent will be a great partner to help us enable India to access and enjoy unlimited music at their fingertips.”

“Gaana is a leading music streaming platform in India, where millions of users stay tuned to its rich music library including its exclusive Bollywood content,” said Martin Lau, President of Tencent Holdings. “As more affordable mobile data plans are driving smartphone penetration in India, we believe growth in the music streaming market will accelerate.”

India is an interesting and fast-growing market for music-streaming services. Gaana is already in direct competition with Saavn, a US-based firm started by Indian entrepreneur Rishi Malhotra. Saavn, with considerable presence in India, had raised a massive US$100 million from Tiger Global in 2015.

As per a new report, global major Spotify is planning to enter India soon. It has already opened an office in Mumbai, but it won’t be easy for the Swedish company, as it will will need to work extensively on understanding the consumer behaviour in the country wherein regional diversity could be challenging for a foreign company.

Pricing could be another challenge in India, a price-conscious market. Other major global companies like Apple Music have priced their subscription service at INR 120 per month, which is far less compared to US$9.99 per month pricing in the US.

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