Hungama raises $25 mn in funding round led by Xiaomi

Digital media entertainment company Hungama has raised an investment of $25 million, led by smartphone company Xiaomi, along with existing investors Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and financial investor and Indian billionaire, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

With this round of funding, Hungama will expand the content library and further invest in world class technology on its mobile app platforms – Hungama Music for music and Hungama Play for premium video, including movies, television and original series. Hungama will soon add over 1,500 hours of television content along with original content to its current Hungama Play offering of over 8,000 movies in English and 12 Indian languages.

Speaking about the funding round, Neeraj Roy, Founder & CEO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, said, “India is adding 8 million new consumers to the Internet each month with 90 per cent of digital consumption being driven by mobile. Young Indians love their music and movies and the mobile will be the most used screen for this generation. Content will drive the next phase of Digital India and we are delighted to partner with Xiaomi as we prepare to bring premium and original digital entertainment to a 100 million Indians before the end of this year.”

Hugo Barra, Vice-President, Xiaomi, added here, “We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver Internet services, and this includes content. We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience.”

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Chairman, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, commented, “I have been invested into Hungama for several years and participated in this new capital raise as I believe they have built an unique leadership position with the most compelling music and movie OTT service for South Asians globally that is ripe for growth as India will embrace broadband and 4G. We welcome Xiaomi as one of our partners.”

Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Bessemer Venture Partners, said, “We are excited about the leadership position that Hungama has built as being the one stop OTT platform across music, videos and movies. We are delighted to have Xiaomi as our partners and will accelerate our growth and leadership.”

Hungama is a pioneer in digital media entertainment since its inception 17 years ago. The company has constantly innovated and delivered differentiated, premium audio and video content to its consumers across web and mobile platforms, fuelling the company’s growth to becoming the largest overall digital platform in India. Hungama has over 65 million monthly active users across all its platforms, consuming a content base of over 3.5 million premium digital units across audio and video.

Citibank acted as exclusive financial advisor to Hungama on this transaction.