Music streaming service Saavn, which recently raised a $100-million round of funding, has roped in former Vodafone global CEO Arun Sarin as an investor and strategic advisor.
The move comes as the company is stepping up focus on monetisation and looking to tie up with telcos for bundled packs where Sarin’s experience and network is expected to help Saavn.
Sarin recently took a similar role at cab aggregator Ola. The investment is an extension of the previous round, but the stake sold or deal size was not disclosed.
“They are leveraging the smartphone revolution in India where today there are roughly 100M smartphones. And in five years, we’ll have 500 million smartphones in India,” Sarin told ET. He will work with the company on scaling the business, distribution of the product and organizational structure, among other things.
Saavn now has over 18 million monthly active users, as compared with 14 million users two months ago when it announced the round of funding. It does 250 million streams per month and gets 90% of usage on mobile, underling the importance of tying up with carriers.
While Saavn currently gets most of its revenues through advertisements, billing and bundling packs with carriers will also be important for it going ahead.
“We are engaging with all the carriers, and there is a lot of interest in bundling Saavn service with data plans as mobile ecosystem is about music, messaging and social,” said Rishi Malhotra, co-founder and CEO of Saavn.
Carriers like AirtelBSE -1.52 % also have their own music services like Wynk, but Sarin does not see that as a stumbling block.
“I see mobile operators as distribution partners for Saavn. I would say that an app like Saavn helps them sell their data bundles,” said Sarin.
Saavn, which tied up with online wallet service provider Paytm last month, said number of paid subscribers have also increased over the last two months by 25%.
Payments have been one of the major issues in the growth of online music industry, as credit card penetration remains low.
Saavn competes with Hungama and Gaana, owned by publishers of this newspaper, besides international players like Apple Music and Guevera.
Saavn counts Tiger Global Management as its biggest investor while its other investors include Bertelsmann India Investments and Steadview Capital.