Voiz FM Founders with 500 Startups Vietnam Team
Voiz FM, an audiobook and podcast startup, announced today that it raised an undisclosed seed funding from 500 Startups Vietnam.
The Vietnamese startup will spend the money on product development and market expansion.
“Our product roadmap includes the launch of a recommendation algorithm in early July and an AI Voice functionality, which will allow users to choose their preferred voices for all titles, in October this year,” said Thai Tran, Co-founder and CEO of Voiz FM.
Voiz FM was launched in late 2019 by three entrepreneurs with the goal of capitalising on opportunities in the emerging audio media space.
Starting off with an audiobook, Voiz FM ensures that it has attained legitimate copyrights for the published contents and filter the noise in the country’s online piracy industry.
In recent months globally, the platform has seen twice the growth in its user base, as there’s a surge in demand due to coronavirus quarantine.
Taking a long-term approach has resulted in exclusive publishing rights for more than 1,000 best-selling titles on the platform in the 6-month span.
It also partners with top tier publishers in Vietnam, including First News, Kim Dong, and Tre Publishers.
According to Deloitte, the global audiobook and podcasting markets are set to grow to US$3.5 and US$1.1 billion in 2020, which reflects an annual growth of 25 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, compared to that of the broader global media and entertainment sector at 4 per cent.
Binh Tran, General Partner of 500 Startups Vietnam, said: “In Vietnam, the on-demand audiobook and podcast market is young but we believe it will grow tremendously over the next few years as more quality content is made available to listeners. The Voiz FM team quickly shipped a polished product that allowed listeners to discover and consume high quality exclusively licensed audiobook content. This combined with their dedication to customers and broader vision to tackle the growing podcasting market gave us confidence that this team will lead this market.”
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Picture Credit: Voiz FM
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