Gaana to raise USD 115 million in its latest round of funding led by Tencent

Gaana, India’s largest digital music service, is raising USD 115 million from Tencent, China’s largest music streaming business, and Times Internet in its latest round of financing.

Tencent is the majority shareholder of Tencent Music Entertainment and also operates JOOX, a leading music streaming platform in South East Asia.

Gaana intends to use the capital to further invest into technology to use AI to personalize music experiences for each consumer, to further develop its subscription product for paying users, and to develop aligned music experiences for Gaana consumers.

Gautam Sinha, CEO, Times Internet, said, “We are happy to welcome Tencent as a partner in Gaana and benefit from their global learnings. Gaana has demonstrated exponential growth over the years. Tencent operates the largest music streaming business in China, and we look forward to working closely with them to continue to innovate and drive the digital music market in India."

Prashan Agarwal, CEO, Gaana, said, "Music streaming is the future of music consumption globally, and in India, we’re only 10% 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. By investing in and collaborating with Gaana, we look forward to bringing more innovation and better experiences to all Indian music lovers.”

In December 2017, Gaana claimed to have crossed 60 million monthly active users. Gaana was incubated 7 years ago by Times Internet.

According to a press statement, Gaana’s mobile app has witnessed 700% growth in consumption in the last 2 years where 88% of its monthly users come from India. 

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