The worldwide podcasting market is on a meteoric rise, with over 500 million listeners as we speak and projections estimating it can develop from $27 billion in 2023 to over $234 billion by 2030. With practically 80% of listeners ending whole episodes, it’s no marvel worldwide advert spending is about to hit $4.02 billion by 2024. Regardless of this increase, podcasters nonetheless face one main problem: discoverability.
Enter Podeo, a Dubai-based podcast startup and the world’s largest podcast distribution platform that’s serving to over 100,000 creators attain audiences worldwide.
Podeo is asserting a $5.4M Collection A funding spherical to assist podcasters overcome this discoverability hurdle. The spherical, led by Oraseya Capital (the enterprise arm of the Dubai Built-in Financial Zones Authority), additionally noticed participation from Ibtikar Fund, Cedar Mundi Ventures, Samarium, iSME, and returning investor Razor Capital.
With this new capital, Podeo plans to boost podcast discoverability and enhance creator income. The platform will increase throughout rising markets, using its distinctive distribution channels and superior AI instruments that profit each creators and advertisers.
Podeo offers an all-in-one resolution for podcasters, masking every part from content material creation and distribution to monetization. Whereas discoverability is a rising problem, Podeo’s distinctive distribution integrations prolong far past conventional streaming apps. The platform presents creators publicity throughout sudden channels, together with radio stations, airways, ride-hailing apps, gaming platforms, and messaging apps. With a neighborhood of over 100,000 creators and a world viewers of fifty million, Podeo is breaking limitations and amplifying impartial voices like by no means earlier than.
Podeo
Based in 2020 by Stefano Fallaha, Anthony Essaye, and Mario Hayek, Podeo initially began out as a podcast app however shortly developed into an end-to-end platform. Transitioning from a destination-first to a distribution-first mannequin, Podeo is redefining how podcasts are delivered and monetized. The founding group, who beforehand developed the timed-podcast aggregator Fallound, is now main a dynamic group of over 35 consultants in audio, large knowledge, and media.
Podeo equips creators with top-tier instruments to increase their attain and have interaction various audiences. For manufacturers, the platform presents methods to optimize advert spend by way of its cutting-edge ad-tech, making promoting extra environment friendly throughout a number of channels.
“We’re devoted to empowering creators to turn out to be world audio stars by giving them the instruments to attach with various audiences,” mentioned Stefano Fallaha, CEO of Podeo. “This Collection A funding will assist us scale quickly throughout rising markets and produce storytelling to a world stage, giving underrepresented voices the prospect to succeed in billions.”
The podcast trade is present process an enormous shift as impartial creators rise to satisfy the rising demand for genuine content material. Podeo is positioning itself because the go-to platform for creators aiming to succeed in cell audiences, with partnerships that embrace Dubai Taxis, Anuvu’s airline prospects, messaging platform imo, and Arabic media big Rotana.
Podeo’s impression within the MENA area has been groundbreaking, growing podcast manufacturing by 50X in two years and boosting regional income six-fold. Creators utilizing Podeo have seen a 166% common month-to-month viewers progress after switching to the platform, because of a straightforward transition course of. “Podeo has remodeled our podcast attain by way of its unique distribution community and monetization instruments,” mentioned Mo Islam, host of Saudi Arabia’s main English podcast, The Mo Present. “Since becoming a member of Podeo, we’ve turn out to be a part of a thriving neighborhood, supported by a platform that adapts to our wants and drives our progress.”
Podeo will even use the recent capital infusion to speed up its world enlargement, improve its AI capabilities, and proceed rolling out progressive instruments that reshape the podcasting panorama. The corporate envisions a future the place content material transcends geographic limits, merging radio and on-demand experiences right into a unified ecosystem with Podeo on the heart.
“We’re excited to again Podeo of their subsequent progress section,” mentioned Julien Plouzeau, Senior Accomplice at Oraseya Capital. “Podeo’s distribution mannequin and Stefano’s management have introduced them to the forefront of podcasting in MENA, and we’re assured they’ll scale this success in new markets, fixing the discoverability downside for creators and advertisers alike.”
