Pocket FM elevates Anurag Sharma as CFO

Audio series platform Pocket FM has elevated Anurag Sharma as chief financial officer, the company said on July 27. Sharma joined Pocket FM in 2021 as vice president of finance and was involved in the startup’s fundraising efforts, operational efficiency and driving strategic partnerships.

In his new role, Sharma will be responsible for Pocket FM’s financial operations, playing a key role in shaping the company’s financial strategy and driving its execution, the firm said in a statement.

“Anurag has played a pivotal role in propelling our growth journey and driving our successful global expansion. Through his strategic acumen, we have forged key partnerships that have significantly expanded our content diversity and business efficiencies” Pocket FM co-founder Rohan Nayak said in a statement.

Sharma will work closely with the company’s executive team to identify growth opportunities, optimise resource allocation, drive strategic partnerships and improve profitability, the company said.

“As we are on our path to profitability, we will continue to forge new paths and harness the power of audio entertainment to captivate audiences around the globe. With this new role, I will continue to build a robust financial foundation, drive growth, and create value for our stakeholders” Sharma said.

Before joining Pocket FM, Sharma led the finance function at Ninjacart, a business-to-business agritech startup. He’s also had stints at BK Birla Group of Companies as well as Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers among the Big Four accounting firms.

Founded in 2018 by Nayak, Nishanth Srinivas, and Prateek Dixit, Pocket FM says it provides more than 100,000 hours of long-format audio content across various genres such as romance, horror, thriller, sci-fi, fiction, and mythology in English and several Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, and Marathi.

The company claims to have over 80 million listeners globally who are spending an average of over 150 minutes on a daily basis. It claims to have surpassed $25 million ARR (annualized revenue run-rate) in October 2022.

Pocket FM counts Lightspeed, Tencent, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, Times Group, and South Korean internet giant Naver among its investors.

It has raised $109.5 million to date, which includes a $ 16 million debt financing in May 2023 and a $65 million funding round in March 2022. Moneycontrol