Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd has led a $50-million (Rs 375 crore) funding round in Times Internet-owned music-streaming platform Gaana, the Indian company’s spokesperson told DealStreetAsia.
“We recently raised Rs 375 crore debt from existing shareholders, Times Internet and Tencent,” the spokesperson said without disclosing further details.
According to the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) sourced by paper.vc, Tencent has pumped in about Rs 300 crore in the latest round through its European entity Tencent Cloud B.V. The financing also saw participation of Times Internet, which has pumped in about Rs 75 crore.
Following the investment, Tencent’s holding in Gaana has increased to 34.44 per cent while Times Internet’s stake has come down to 60.18 per cent, according to an Entrackr report.
The Chinese investor first invested in Gaana in February 2018 when it led a $115-million funding round in the company for a minority stake. The current funding was much needed at a time when the online music streaming in India is gaining traction with the entry of large global players like Spotify and Google-owned YouTube Music.
Incubated by The Times Group in 2010, Gaana claims to be India’s leading music streaming service with over 185 million monthly active users (MAU). It is targeting to reach 250 million MAU by March 2021. After the ban of Bytedance-owned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps by the Indian government in July, Gaana had also launched a new platform HotShots that allows users to create and share short videos and stories.
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