Radiowalla to raise $15 mn to fund acquisitions in US, Europe

The country's largest digital audio player Radiowalla is looking at raising about USD 15 million to fund its acquisitions plans in the US and Europe, which will form part of the second leg of its international forays.
Set up in August 2011, the Bengaluru-based startup founded by Anil Srivatsa (CEO) and Harvinderjit Bhatia (Director), is already present in the UAE, Oman, Sri Lanka and Nepal, apart from the homemarket of India.
"We've already identified one each profit-making companies in the US and Europe for potential acquisitions. We are pursuing the acquisition route as entering on own in these markets demands a lot of regulatory clearances.

"We hope to complete the deals at the earliest as these firms are ready to sell us but we need funds to the tune of USD 10-15 million for these, which is taking time," Srivatsa told PTI.
He, however, did not offer a timeline for these deals saying "anything can be offered only after we have the funds, which is the only hindrance as of now".
Radiowalla, also known as corporate radio operator, is the largest player with around half the market pie in India.

The nascent domestic digital audio space has only five players, including Radiowalla. The other four are Fever Audio 2 from the Hindustan Times, Bluefrog, BC Juke Box and Opus.

Before sporting the entrepreneur's hat, Srivatsa was the ex-CEO of the IPL team of Kings XI Punjab, the COO of Radio Today and the co-founder of ImaginAsian--the first Asian American cable TV network in the US, while Bhatia was the ex- CFO of NetMagic, Digicable and Radio Mirchi.
On whether the funds will be debt-driven, he said the promoters are ready to shed their stake and issue equities. Already the only PE fund, that invested USD 2 million, has exited but some HNIs still remain invested.
When asked about revenue, he said he will be closing this
fiscal with Rs 5 crore, which stood at Rs 2.5 crore last year and hopes to more than double revenue next fiscal year.

On revenue model, he said he charges a fee, apart from sharing ad revenue from its customers who number 150, mostly retailers but serving them at over 7,000 locations where the annual footfalls are between 500 million and 1 billion. He also hopes to double customer-base this year.
Its leading customers include all the big modern trade players like Big Bazaar, WestSide, Marks & Spencer's, Puma, Shipra Mall, Peter England, Central, the Art of Living Foundation, the Brahmakumaris among others.
About foreign operations, he said they are doing well as the per store yield is over four times in overseas stores.

On the industry outlook, Srivatsa said what needs to be understood is that radio is a much bigger industry than what is being understood by FM radio players and customers. There is a much much larger space for audio content.
For instance, he said insurance, which employs tens of thousands of agents to sell their products, can be big market for them as training these lakhs of agents through a corporate radio will be big revenue maximisation for the insurers. Whether he is working with any of them, he said he already has a few insurance clients.
About content development, he said he's planning to create a B2C content, as currently it's a B2B operator, for some special interest groups and also news channel.

He also said Radiowalla is also in advance stages of launching an interesting technology tool for helping offline retailers achieve closer interaction with their customers. The technology will soon be integrated in the radio service provider's existing service platform.
Radiowalla or players like it operates in the digital space and offer customised content to corporate, special interest groups and help form personalised radio networks.
It offers customised audio content to various users like retail chains, malls, hospitals and corporates so that they can more effectively and at cheaper cost share their business ideas and interact with their target audience.