Pocket FM scales via microtransactions, AI

The platform blends pay-per-episode spending with premium plans

- Salman SH

Lalit Gangwar, chief operating officer at Pocket FM.

Pocket FM, an audio storytelling platform, said its users in India and the US are getting increasingly comfortable with microtransactions—paying per episode or series—giving it a monetization engine that differs from the classic subscription business.

The company’s recent growth reflects how microtransactions and the deeper use of AI across content creation, editing and creator tools have started to scale up together, chief operating officer Lalit Gangwar said.

“Pocket FM is best understood as a microtransaction-led audio storytelling business rather than a pure subscription model,” Gangwar said. “Listeners typically start free, get hooked on serialized stories or series, and then keep returning to unlock the next episode or story arc.”