Pocket FM hits $500M run rate as AI powers 99% of new content

Pocket FM started in 2018 as a platform for serialized audio stories, and it still leans on human creators for ideas and storytelling while using AI to turn those concepts into finished content at scale. Nayak framed that division plainly: "We want to create great IPs that last 100 years, and that needs humans." The company has trained its own models for tasks like creative writing and text-to-speech, drawing on years of production data and signals about how listeners engage, according to AI head Vasu Sharma.

The shift shows up across the business. More than 550,000 creators now produce about 2.5 million hours of AI-powered content a year, against an entire catalog of roughly 100,000 hours two years ago, and the library has grown past 770,000 audio series. The revenue figures trace the same arc: about $250 million a year ago, $430 million in April, and $500 million now. The U.S., up around 70% over the past year, is the largest market at about 70% of that run rate.

The next test is whether this model travels beyond audio. Pocket Entertainment's three-month-old microdrama app, Pocket Saga, is entirely AI-produced and already near a $15 million run rate. Funding talks are reportedly underway, and a new round would go mainly toward AI and new entertainment formats, even as Nayak says there is no immediate pressure to raise. Whether the same cost advantage produces hits in video, books, and licensing is the open question.