Kuku raises $85M in Series C round led by Granite Asia

Storytelling platform Kuku on Thursday raised $85 million in a Series C funding round, led by multi-asset investment platform Granite Asia (f.k.a GGV Capital).

The round also saw participation from Vertex Growth Fund, Krafton, IFC, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft.

According to the company, the newly-raised capital will be used to strengthen the firm’s AI and data infrastructure, expand talent pool across technology and content, and deepen creator partnerships as well as accelerate scaling efforts in India and abroad.

"Granite Asia's backing, combined with the trust of over 10 million paid subscribers, position us for exceptional growth," said Lal Chand Bisu, Founder and CEO of Kuku. "With this investment we'll bring celebrated actors and television personalities into our shows. This will build more and more shows that surpass 100 million views while delivering the premium content to our audience."

Excluding the fresh funding round, Kuku has raised around $68 million in various tranches till date. The company had last raised $20.8 million in August 2023.

Bisu said that the fresh funds have come at more than two times the valuation that the company had in the last funding round.

Founded in 2018, Kuku operates two flagship products—KukuTV which engages in long-form stories as bite-sized episodes in a vertical drama format and Kuku FM, which focuses on audio shows across entertainment and knowledge.

Together, these platforms offer a content library across more than eight Indian languages. Additionally, the firm has also built an in-house GenAI studio that is helping create content with lower turnaround time and optimised production costs across every stage of development, from ideation and scripting to production, distribution, and audience engagement, the company said.

“Kuku represents a new wave of Indian consumer platforms built on deep local insight and mobile-first innovation,” said Jenny Lee, Senior Managing Partner at Granite Asia. “We’re excited to catalyse the team’s vision to become India’s leading storytelling platform - drawing on our experience partnering with consumer tech leaders across Asia to turn local creativity into global platforms.”

(With inputs from PTI)