Pocket FM appoints Akansha Kumari as head of product

Akansha Kumari, Head of Product, Pocket FM

Audio series platform Pocket FM on July 16 announced the elevation of Akansha Kumari as head of product, as it continues to strengthen its leadership team.

Kumari will lead Pocket FM’s end-to-end product strategy and execution. This includes overseeing the user journey — from onboarding and content discovery to long-term engagement and monetisation, while driving innovation, improving platform efficiency, and accelerating global growth. She will report to Pocket FM co-founder Prateek Dixit.

“Akansha brings a rare blend of product intuition, business acumen, and customer empathy. Over the past year, she has consistently demonstrated a deep understanding of what it takes to build for scale without compromising on user experience," Dixit said in a statement.

Kumari joined Pocket FM in April 2024 as AVP – Product with an focus on improving long-term user retention through loyalty programmes and subscriptions.

Her role was later expanded to oversee the entire revenue and business model for the audio series platform, including advertising, in-app purchases, and subscriptions.

Before Pocket FM, Kumari worked in companies such as Jupiter, Dunzo, and Zynga.

"Our ambition is bold: to make storytelling as immersive, accessible, and addictive as any form of visual entertainment. I look forward to leading this charge by combining user empathy with sharp execution, and building experiences that are not just scalable, but truly unforgettable," Kumari said.

Started by Dixit, Rohan Nayak and Nishanth KS, the Bengaluru-based startup recently restructured as Pocket Entertainment, which operates three core verticals — Pocket FM, a bite-sized online novel app Pocket Novel, and an artificial intelligence (AI)-first webcomics platform Pocket Toons, which was launched in February.

The company also recently launched a short drama app called Pocket TV.

In June, Pocket Entertainment elevated Umesh Bude as chief technology officer, as the company looks to leverage AI to accelerate story production and build new capabilities that help its writers brainstorm, draft, and experiment faster.

This includes developing a “future-ready” storytelling engine that helps them do experiments more to identify potential blockbuster shows. The firm also allows writers to turn their stories into audio series on the platform with a single click through a partnership with AI voice cloning startup ElevenLabs.

Pocket FM, the company's flagship product, offers more than 75,000 audio series, spanning genres such as romance, drama, thriller, fantasy and science fiction. The series are offered in English and several Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada and Marathi.

The platform claims to have over 200 million listeners who on average spend more than 115 minutes a day.

Pocket Entertainment was last valued at $750 million when it raised $103 million in March 2024. It has raised $196.5 million to date.

For FY25, Pocket Entertainment recorded a 68 percent increase in revenue at Rs 1,768 crore. The growth was driven by strong momentum across India, the US and Europe markets, along with an expanded content catalogue and improved monetisation.