Hindustan Media Ventures buys minority stake in podcast company Hubhopper

Delhi-based podcast hosting, creation and distribution company Hubhopper has raised an undisclosed amount as a strategic investment from Hindustan Times Media Ventures.

Earlier, Hubhopper had raised more than $500k across several rounds of investment from angel investors and institutional investors, including ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Unit-E Ventures, and more.

Hubhopper will use the funds to continue growing the podcast ecosystem in India by democratising and empowering Indian creators with tools and technologies to create, host, launch, distribute, analyse and monetise their podcasts and audio content.

Further, they will continue to grow their products and podcast distribution network of over 50+ partners and integrations — currently including the likes of Samsung, Spotify, Gaana, Wynk, Paytm, PhonePe, Karbonn, Indus OS, and more.

The deal comes at a time when tech and media giants, both in India and globally, are doubling down to own a piece of India’s rapidly growing podcast market. Just earlier in November 2020, Tencent-backed Pratilipi had acquired podcast firm IVM Podcasts — moving towards the consolidation of the podcast space in India, the first of many moves and alliances to come.

Globally, this alliance comes at a time of incredible fervour and activity across the podcast landscape that has been witnessed over the past 18 months, with events such as audio streaming giant Spotify acquiring a host of podcast houses and platforms, including Gimlet Media, Parcast, Megaphone, and Anchor.

On the other hand, Amazon has placed its bets in the podcast market by purchasing four-year-old podcast network Wondery and Sirius XM has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy podcasting companies Stitcher and Simplecast. Most recently, social media giant Twitter has entered the fray, acquiring podcast platform Breaker.

Gautam Raj Anand, Founder, Hubhopper, said, “Audio is an incredibly special medium. It’s more language, literacy and capital agnostic than its contemporaries and has a special place in the hearts and lives of Indian people. Hubhopper’s endeavour along with HT is to continue to champion this community and democratise podcasting for all. We have only scratched the tip of this iceberg.”

Nishant Kumar, Head of Partnerships, Hubhopper, commented, “Hubhopper has always endeavoured to make audio creation and consumption accessible through robust and innovative technology platforms. This strategic partnership between HT Media and Hubhopper marks a turning point in the development of India’s podcast landscape. We look forward to together bringing this incredible medium of digital audio to every creator and consumer in India.”

Hubhopper works with over 50 partners on the content and distribution side such as Spotify, Gaana, Wynk, HT Media, Samsung, Amazon Alexa, and many more. Their end-to-end podcast creation, hosting, and distribution platform Hubhopper Studio supports over 10,000 creators, brands, and enterprises with over 8 million monthly streams and all their other podcasting software needs.

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