While reorganising its operations last week, 80–100 workers were let off by Mumbai-based audiobook platform Kuku FM. Additionally, contracted staff were affected by the exercise. According to the reports, 300 workers, both on and off the roll, lost their jobs overall. The exercise had the biggest effect on the content team, which consists of authors and producers.
According to the sources, there may have been even more workers laid off throughout the exercise. Repots said that Kuku FM implemented the layoffs in order to save expenses. For content creation, the startup will probably use artificial intelligence (AI).
Financial Dynamics of Kuku FM
In the fiscal year 2023-2024 (FY24), Kuku FM’s income more than doubled to INR 88 Cr from INR 41.1 Cr in the prior fiscal year. From INR 116 Cr in FY23, its loss decreased by 18% to INR 96 Cr. While its content development costs more than tripled to INR 11.2 Cr, its marketing expenditures increased 37% year over year to INR 48 Cr. Kuku FM, which was founded in 2018 by Bisu, Vikas Goyal, and Vinod Kumar Meena, provides audio programming in a variety of categories, including news, education, entertainment, self-help, personal finance, mythology, spirituality, and inspiration.
At the moment, it asserts that its platform hosts over 150K hours of content in a variety of formats. The startup provides audiobooks in a number of regional languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, and Marathi. It contains English-language information as well.
Funding Raised
Nearly a year has passed since the business raised $25 million in its Series C fundraising round, which was co-led by International Finance Corporation and The Fundamentum Partnership and included Vertex Ventures. To date, it has raised $72 million in investment. Among its investors are Krafton and Shunwei Capital. It should be noted that the reorganisation process was carried out about a month after Pocket FM, a rival of Kuku FM, announced layoffs. According to reports, Pocket FM fired about 50 workers worldwide in a variety of roles. Earlier this year, Pocket FM had let go of almost 200 journalists working in the United States.
Layoffs a Common Scenario in Indian Startup Sector
In the first half of 2024, Indian startups laid off fewer workers than they did in the same period last year, suggesting that the industry may be nearing the end of its worst layoffs, albeit it is still far from done.
According to data from executive search agency Longhouse Consulting, startups reduced employment by approximately 11,250 between January and June of this year, compared to 21,000 in the first half of 2023 and 15,000 in the second half.
While layoffs may have decreased from their 2023 highs, industry executives and hiring experts warned that they are still happening as startups face a tight funding environment and an emphasis on cost-cutting, particularly for those getting ready for an IPO.
The new norm these days isn’t reading books, it’s listening to them. Yes, you head it right.
As people get busy with their life, jobs, and family, they barely are able to find time to read books or blogs. These days audiobooks and podcasts are immensely popular and have become a part of a larger trend in the audio industry.
Especially podcasters, as more and more people are inclined to listen to a podcast than read a news article on their daily commute. Compared to the past, you can find a relatively large amount of audio content these days.
However, one thing that holds back creators in this industry is the lack of adequate resources. While some may have technical resources, they face challenges with digital resources or vice-versa.
Meet Listnr
Listnr lets you use multiple features for your audio content
Convert your blog posts or any text for voice-overs or podcast with human-sounding voices.
With Listnr, users can start podcasts in more than 17 languages without any recording.
Listnr is for both freelancers and commercial podcasters who want to monetize their content through advertising. It allows users to convert text into speech with AI. For YouTube videos to E-books, you can create it all using Listnr.
You can also enable the option to read-listen or watch-listen for users. This will help you get more traffic as well as improve your conversion rate. Listnr also lets you convert and distribute your audio content anywhere with commercial broadcasting rights on platforms like Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, and other apps.
Listnr allows you to convert your blog into a podcast using Google WaveNet TTs. You can select content from other websites or simply write the content yourself on its dashboard and download your audio file and distribute it anywhere you’d like.
Lisntr converts your text or blog into podcasts using AI
High-quality voices
Listnr supports more than 17+ languages with their different dialects and 30+ natural, human-sounding voices from Mandarin to English. You also get to select regional language dialects like British, Indian, and American English.
Embed
Listnr lets you select text from any place on the internet and embed your podcast wherever you like, You can embed your audio files into your blog post with code snippets.
AI voice-overs
Listnr, with its state of the art text-to-speech algorithm, allows users to do AI voice-overs for YouTube videos, blog posts, and audiobooks.
Audio Analytics
Change the tone and color of the audio player to your liking as it is fully customizable.
Automatic RSS feed of your podcasts
Every time you upload content, your RSS feeds automatically gets updated in your podcast no matter what platform it’s on.
Publish podcast to any hosting platform
Listnr lets you publish your audio content to any podcast hosting platform like Google, Apple, Transistor or Spotify podcasts.
17+ Languages with 30+ Dialects and Voices (more coming soon)
Unlimited Summaries
Unlimited Embedding
Audio Player customization
Audio Player Analytics
This plan is stackable up to 4 codes/times. Each stacked code will add the following = +25 Audio conversions per month, +45,000 Words Per Month, +100 GB Storage, +1 User Account (team member)
60 Days Refund Policy
2) $297 Agency Plan
300,000 Words Per Month
500 GB Storage
5 Sub Accounts (Teams)
10 User Accounts (Team Members)
17+ Languages with 30+ Dialects and Voices (more coming soon)
Unlimited Summaries
Unlimited Embedding
Audio Player customization
Audio Player Analytics
Commercial Redistribution Rights and White-Labeling
60 Days Refund Policy
3) $39 Agency Add-on Pack (Addon pack for the $297 Agency Plan)
10,000 Words Per Month
25 GB Storage
1 Sub Account (team)
2 Team Members
The add-on pack will be stackable up to 5 codes/times. Each stacked code will add the same above-mentioned features of this plan.
60 Days Refund Policy
Listnr – FAQ’s
What languages does Listnr Support?
Listnr supports more than 30 languages including English(US, UK, IN, and Australia), Hindi, Russian, German, Spanish, etc. with different regional dialects as well.
Does Listnr have gender-specific voices?
Yes, we support Male, Female and Neutral voices for all the 30+ languages we support!
Who owns the Audio generated on Listnr?
Any Audio/Podcast generated using Listnr is owned by the user, including all Publishing rights. Listnr doesn’t own any Audio generated on the platform by our users.
Nitin Konde
