Gaana acquires $115m funding from Chinese company, Tencent

Indian music streaming app Gaana has raised $115m from Chinese Investment Company Tencent Holdings Ltd and Times Internet Ltd.

Rs 740 crore financing will acquire a minority stake in Gaana which is operated by Gamma Gaana Ltd, a Times Internet subsidiary.

Prashan Agarwal, CEO of Gaana, Said, "With data prices so low, having easy access to crores of songs which are editorially curated and personally recommended is a better experience than piracy, where quality is unpredictable and selection is limited. We have penetrated only 5-6% of India. Over the next few years, we want to take this to 20-30%."

Gaana released a statement saying, the funding will be used to further invest in artificial intelligence (AI)-related technology to personalize music experiences for consumers, to further develop its subscription services for paying users, and to develop aligned music experiences for Gaana users.

The CEO of Times Internet, Gautam Sinha said regarding Tencent, “we look forward to working closely with them to continue to innovate and drive the digital music market in India.” Sinha continued "Gaana has demonstrated exponential growth over the years. We are happy to welcome Tencent as a partner in Gaana and benefit from their global learnings,"

Tencent Holdings owns Tencent Music along with JOOX, a leading streaming service in southeast Asia. Tencent is preparing for a $10-billion IPO in Hong Kong and has a minority stake in Spotify, the Sweden-based streaming service.