Music streaming service Gaana raises $115M led by Tencent

Music streaming app Gaana is raising $115 million from Chinese Internet investment company Tencent Holdings and Times Internet, the company said in a statement. The funds will be used for strengthening technological capabilities, such as leveraging Artificial intelligence (AI) to provide users with a personalised music experience.

"We are happy to welcome Tencent as a partner in Gaana and benefit from their global learnings. Tencent operates the largest music streaming business in China, and we look forward to working closely with them to continue to innovate and drive the digital music market in India,” Gautam Sinha, CEO of Times Internet, said in a statement.

With this investment, Tencent acquires a minority stake in Gaana, which was so far a wholly owned subsidiary of Times Internet. "As more affordable mobile data plans are driving smartphone penetration in India, we believe growth in the music streaming market will accelerate. By investing in, and collaborating with Gaana, we look forward to bringing more innovation and better experiences to all Indian music lovers," said Martin Lau, President of Tencent Holdings.

Given its other music businesses and investments — which include Joox in Southeast Asia and karaoke app Smule — and the fact that Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) is widely-tipped to head for an IPO this year, it isn’t a huge surprise to see Tencent expand its India focus with this move into music streaming.

While Spotify and Apple Music are the popular choices globally, Saavn, Gaana, Google Play Music and Amazon Prime Music compete in the music streaming market back home