Storiyoh, an Indian social podcast start-up, is in advanced negotiations with a group of Middle East-based angel investors and impact funds to raise capital, its CEO has revealed.
The fundraising plan is a precursor to the podcast venture’s ambitious entry plans in the Middle East market with an Arabic audio content platform.
“We are targeting to raise about $2 million in the initial phase – which could go up depending on the investor interest – and are in discussions with some of the reputed institutional and individual investors, including in the Middle East,” Rahul Nair, founder and CEO of Storiyoh, told Arabian Business in an exclusive interview.
Rahul declined to name any of the funds or angel investors with whom the firm is currently in discussions because of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with them. The holding company of Storiyoh is registered in Dubai.
Rahul Nair, founder and CEO of Storiyoh
Although there has been an increasing trend of Indian tech firms and start-ups approaching Gulf-based funds and investors for funds, Storiyoh is understood to be the first Indian podcast start-up.
Rahul revealed that although the company has started out as a podcast venture, its vision and long-term plan is to become an “Alibaba of the digital world” – where the company will create the necessary digital infrastructure for people from anywhere and any field to create their own content and market.
“Our platform will have the entire infrastructure, including various resources needed for content creation,” he said, adding that developers can make use of these resources for a fee.
“So, what we are actually looking for is ‘patient capital’ as we want our investors to support our vision and long-term plans.”
“We want to build a new community for people who love the spoken word – a community of creators and listeners – and we will use technology to create, manage and to help it thrive.
Storiyoh’s vision and long-term plan is to become an “Alibaba of the digital world”
Rahul, who is a London School of Economics alumni and also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education programme, was a senior executive with the GEMS group, before taking his entrepreneurial plunge in 2016, said the firm’s capital raising plans are mainly to fund its proposed entry plans in the Middle East market.
“We have plans to launch a platform for Arabic content across subjects and topics for the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region,” he said.
Rahul said the firm intended to partner with outstanding storytellers, teachers and subject matter experts to create world-class, inspiring, audio programmes in Arabic.
Storiyoh, which is fast emerging as a leading podcast player in the south Indian state of Kerala, having already created 500,000 general broadcast episodes and 180 million sourced episodes from the likes of BBC, CNN and other leading publications, also has plans to branch out into video content.
“Our long-term plan is to eventually become a one-shop digital umbrella platform for all forms of content creation,” Rahul said.
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