(L-R) NOICE CBO Niken Sasmaya and CEO Rado Ardian
NOICE, a multi-vertical audio platform for Indonesian listeners, has secured US$22 million in its Series A funding round led by Northstar Group, with participation from existing investors Alpha JWC, Go-Ventures and Kinesys.
“We will use the funds to grow our audio content creators’ community, advance the tech platform, and double down our efforts in developing audio series. We aim to surface Indonesia’s best stories from the local writers/storyteller’s community and adapt them into an audio format. We’ve piloted this new format and found very promising engagement and retention results,” said NOICE CEO Rado Ardian.
This round comes weeks after it announced a strategic investment by RANS Entertainment, a leading content company founded by celebrity couple Raffi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina.
Launched in June 2018 as a radio streaming platform, NOICE streams local audio content, including radio, music, audiobooks and podcasts, to registered listeners across Indonesia. Mahaka Media Group, a company created by Erick Thohir, the country’s minister of state-owned enterprises, is a major investor in NOICE.
Also Read: Indonesian podcast network NOICE nets ‘7-figure USD’ funding co-led by Alpha JWC, Go-Ventures
NOICE differentiates itself from its global rival Spotify through the platform’s hyperlocal in-house content. It focuses on producing and curating local audio content across different audio verticals and hosts more than 40,000 pieces of content.
The firm works closely with the local writers’ community to launch original audio drama series.
NOICE currently serves over two million users and claims to have grown more than 4x over the past year, with its listeners spending ~80 minutes per day on the platform.
The audio platform also runs an end-to-end creator development programme to guide the creators throughout their creative journey. It also includes a proprietary audio creation SaaS platform that allows creators to build and publish content directly on NOICE.
“Users and creators are always our top priority. We want users to have NOICE as their daily companion app through various content lineups ranging from new aspiring creators and hyperlocal talents to mega influencers. While on the creators’ side, we want to invest in building Noicemaker Studio, our recently launched a creator-focused platform where creators can grow their show and unlock the potential creator-driven monetization,” Rado added.
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