Blume Ventures-backed Aurality shuts podcasting app, plans to pivot

Aurality instantly converted text into audio. It was in effect an instant podcasting app with its real-time conversion being positioned as a differentiating factor. It was available on iPhone and was basically used for listening to news from various news portals.

Founded by Janhavi Parikh and Bhavin Badheka in April 2011, Aurality went live last December and raised $300,000(~Rs 1.5 crore) from the investors in March 2012.

"We regret to inform you that Aurality has been discontinued... We've enjoyed bringing you an audio stream of your news and we hope you've enjoyed the service too! We thank you for your support," as per a message on the home page of Aurality.

However, the firm and its investors told Techcircle.in that the startup is not shutting down but is pivoting to a new business. Parikh  confirmed to Techcircle that it is looking to change its business model, but declined to share details.

Podcasting as an app, the core product of Aurality, is a pretty widespread business internationally, but has not taken off in India despite such apps being embedded in various mobile handsets sold in India.

Aurality's service was only launched on the iOS platform, missing out the huge popularity of Android in India and worldwide. The investors, though, seemed to be very optimistic on the upcoming service that is under wraps for now.

"Aurality as a startup is alive and well. As with most startups, they are pivoted to another idea - that new idea is under wraps. And soon you will see it (and hopefully love it)," said Anandan, one of their key investors, in an e-mail response to Techcircle.in.

Is this the case of trying to revive a failed business model or looking at a disruptive new service? Watch this space.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)

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