Exclusive: Web Radio App Startup Aurality Raises Rs 1.5Cr In Seed Funding

Mumbai-based startup Aurality Technologies Pvt Ltd has secured $300,000(~Rs 1.5 crore) in seed funding from a group of angel investors including names like Google India chief Rajan Anandan, US-based angel investor Vikas Taneja, Sunil Kalra of Indian Angel  Network, Mumbai-based Blume Ventures among others to scale up its mobile application called Aurality.

Aurality is a mobile app that instantly converts text into audio. It is in effect instant podcasting app with its real-time conversion being positioned as a differentiating factor. The users can download the app, which is currently in beta mode and available only on iPhone, see the recommendations for the app or suggest something completely different that they want to listen to from the web. A similar app in this space would be Stitcher which is a popular app in the US.

Janhavi Parikh, co-founder & CEO, Aurality told Techcircle.in, "We will use this funding basically to expand our team. Currently we are a small team of three members and looking to hire more people. We would also use the capital for product development."

Founded by Parikh and Bhavin Badheka, Aurality was started in April 2011 and went live in December. Prior to starting Aurality Technologies, Parikh worked at Yahoo! Singapore, managing product marketing and Badheka has worked in technology department of Praum Technolgies and Microsoft.

"The response so far has been good and we are hoping to scale it up further by first coming out of the beta mode soon and secondly launching the app for Android," said Parikh.

Currently the app is available in US and India wherein majority of its user base lies in the US. "Our focus as well as key audience is in the US. However, with the rising popularity of iPhone in India we hope to get a good traction here too," she added.

Aurality app is free as of now and the firm is focusing on user acquisition rather than chasing revenue targets.

Mobile as a platform for apps and advertisers is booming. New apps are being churned out almost every day. Podcasting is a fairly new phenomena in India though it exists in the more developed markets. But with growth of smartphones and consumption of media content on the go, it is expected to catch up big time in India and has a big potential to grow in even the mature markets.