Live music streaming app Streo secures funding

Streo, an Indian start-up whose app allows users to stream music live from venues, festivals and nightclubs around the world, has raised its first round of investment.

The seed funding of an undisclosed amount comes courtesy of Kuwait-based GEMS Advisory, with individual investors including Aditya Gupta, former chairman of Serco in India, and Akash OP Aurora, ‘chief visionary’ (yes, really) at Delhi-based venture-capital firm IdeaTree.

Nightclubs streaming on Streo so far include Goa’s Curlie’s, Tito’s and Cape Town and Trilogy, Social, Kitty Su and Aer in Mumbai (Bombay), with Appa Art Fest in Pune (Poona) and 28-country touring festival Outlook among its festival partners.

“There is a high entry barrier in the music space, and it is a capital-intensive business,” says Streo founder Arush Dhawan. “What we have raised is good enough to get to a point where lots of people are using and loving the app for us to raise our next round of funding.

“Things have moved fast: for example, our focus was to curate the nightclubs in India in 2016, but due to the proactive response we have just registered nightclubs like Levels in Hong Kong and Silk in Colombo [in Sri Lanka] to stream on Streo. Hopefully we will keep pivoting to constantly enhance the user experience.”

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