Saavn gets former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin on board
Sarin will join the firm as a strategic advisor
Bengaluru: Saavn LLC, a music streaming service company, said it received an investment from former Vodafone Group Plc chief executive officer Arun Sarin, who is joining the firm as a strategic advisor.
The company has so far raised about $110 million; the latest round, of $100 million in July from Tiger Global Management Llc and other investors, valued the company at $400 million.
Saavn, which has more than 20 million songs on its platform, said that it now has about 18 million monthly active users and that it has seen a 10 times increase in the daily active users in India since 2014. It also announced that it now has 250 million streams per month.
“As we continue to build a world-class mobile entertainment company, we believe in collaborating with the best partners in the world. With over 90% of our usage driven by smartphones, Saavn users are moving data plan transactions and driving data engagement at an incredible pace," Rishi Malhotra, CEO, Saavn, said in a statement.
“Music streaming is a core app on today’s smartphones, and Saavn is superbly positioned to grow rapidly in the fast expanding smartphone market in India. As an innovative and nimble music streaming company, at the heart of one of the world’s most valuable markets, Saavn hits all the right notes," said Sarin.
India’s music streaming market is estimated by consultancy firm Deloitte to touch 273 million users by 2020.
Saavn, which employs about 145 people across the world, is currently accessed in more than 150 countries and offers tracks in 11 languages. It offers free streaming with ads, as well as ad-free subscription services, which start at ₹ 99 a month, the same as some of its competitors, Gaana and Hungama.
Saavn competes with Gaana, run by Times Internet Ltd, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Saregama India Ltd, apart from global names such Apple Music, Rdio Inc. and Guvera Ltd. Last September, India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd also launched Wynk Music, a similar subscription-based music service.
One of the biggest challenges for streaming services in India is getting users to convert from free users to paid users, as currently, the penetration for subscription music services is less than 1% among all online music listeners, according to the Deloitte report, titled Digital Media: Rise of On-demand Content.
Sarin has also served on numerous boards, including that of Gap Inc. and the Court of the Bank of England. He is currently a non-executive director of Blackhawk Network Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., and Charles Schwab and Co. Inc.
He joined the board of taxi hailing services provider Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, as an independent director in July.
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