Kerning Cultures raises $460K in pre-seed investment round

Having raised $460,000 in their recent seed funding round, Dubai-based Kerning Cultures has become the first ventured backed podcast network in the Middle East.

Lead investor 500 Startups was joined by other individual investors, including Najla Baeshen, Hatem Dowidar, Khalifa Al-Hajeri, Fawzy Abu Seif, and Yousef Janajri. Their previous pre-seed round in 2018 raised $50,000 from Matter, a media-focused accelerator in San Francisco.

The podcast network that started with single podcast show, which was about long-form documentary-style stories from the region. Since then, it has launched many others, while remaining true to their core and having shows tailored to the Middle Eastern audience.

With this recent capital, Kerning Cultures plans to expand its network to launch three new Arabic and English shows by the end of this year.

Podcasts have been gaining popularity over the last year, increasing over 100% in popularity over the last year according to Dubai’s podcasters. It has become the medium of choice for content consumption for many while travelling to and fro work and school.

Spotify recently acquired popular podcast network, Gimlet, for a whooping $200 million. Podcasts are undoubtedly the future of radio. However, will they enjoy the popularity as long as radio did? That is unlikely in our ever-changing world of media consumption.

Even then, they could evolve into something just as disruption in due time. As media consumption shifts, so will formats and content. The next 10 years could see a new industry being built on the foundation of podcasts.

Read more about Kerning Culture’s fundraise here.