India-based music streaming service Saavn raised $100m on Tuesday from investors including media companies Bertelsmann and Liberty Media.
Bertelsmann, which invested through its Bertelsmann India Investments subsidiary, and Liberty Media were joined by Tiger Global Management, which led the round, Steadview Capital, Quilvest, Mousse Partners, and undisclosed Hong Kong-based hedge funds and individual investors.
Saavn raised the money at a valuation between $300m to $400m, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Founded in 2007, Saavn operates a Hindi-focused music streaming service with a 14 million-strong user base that is 90% focused on mobile. Because of India’s comparatively less developed economy, its offering generates much of its income from advertising rather than subscriptions.
Details of the company’s previous rounds have not been disclosed, but the Economic Times reported that much of the $100m came from its existing investors, which include Bertelsmann, Liberty and Mousse Partners.
Saavn plans to use the cash to scale its offering and sales capabilities, and to support its launch of a video streaming service. A synergy between video and audio is well suited to India, as much of its most popular music is tied up with Bollywood film releases.
Rishi Malhotra, Saavn’s CEO, explained to TechCrunch: “We want to become an entertainment ecosystem for mobile. That means new audio products and also video, absolutely. The exciting thing about the [Indian] market that we can be part Spotify, part Pandora, and part Netflix.”