RIL-owned music streaming platform Saavn profit surged 3X in 2017

Music streaming app Saavn has recorded 3X surge in profit in the fiscal year ending December 2017. It has posted a revenue of Rs 45.9 crore in the FY17 (Jan to Dec), reveals RoC filings.

The Indian entity of the company has recorded a profit (after tax) of Rs 3.22 crore as compared to 1.08 crore in CY16. Despite an increase in expenses (before tax), Saavn witnessed a 16.2 per cent year on year growth in terms of revenue. It had a revenue of Rs 39.6 crore in FY16.

Importantly, the Reliance Group-owned company has significantly cut down promotional expenses by about 46 per cent.

While we don’t know the revenue of the US-based entity, last year Saavn had anticipated turning profitable by the end of the current calendar year.

Saavn has a global audience base but according to App Annie data, it has over 90 per cent app users from India. The company’s apps (iOS and Android) get over 78 per cent traffic from India followed by the US, UK, and Pakistan.

Making a bold bet on Saavn, RIL had acquired it for $104 million in cash plus stock. The total worth of stocks offered by the Mukesh Ambani-led group to the music streaming major is yet to be public.

Post acquisition, the group will merge Saavn with its music streaming product JioMusic. The merged entity also turned Unicorn with over $1 billion in valuation.

Before acquisition and merger with Jio Music, the company had raked-in about $110 million risk capital from the likes of Tiger Global, Quilvest, Senvest Management and global entertainment company Endeavor.

Lately, music streaming platforms are having a ball in India. Times Internet-owned Gaana had scooped up $115 million fundraise from Tencent in February 2018. It has a pole position in online music streaming service and had over 50 million monthly active users with a staggering 92 million downloads in December last year.

Recently, Airtel’s owned Wynk had claimed number 2 spot in music streaming segment with 75 million application downloads.