Kitab Sawti
Produce and distribute audiobooks in Arabic for the global market. We're the world largest Arabic audiobook company and target 400 million Arabic speakers globally.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor investor investor investor investor investor | €0.0 | round |
| investor investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| investor investor investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
| EUR | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenues | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % growth | 188 % | 1115 % | 43 % | (63 %) | - | (57 %) | (30 %) |
| EBITDA | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % EBITDA margin | (1822 %) | (256 %) | (179 %) | (127 %) | - | - | - |
| Profit | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % profit margin | (1926 %) | (287 %) | (216 %) | (405 %) | (69 %) | 1022 % | 86 % |
| EV | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| EV / revenue | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x |
| EV / EBITDA | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x |
| R&D budget | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
Source: Company filings or news article
Related Content
Kitab Sawti, which translates to "Audiobook" in Arabic, was an audiobook and podcast platform focused on the Arabic-speaking market. The company was founded in Sweden in 2016 by Sebastian Bond and Anton Pollak. The initial idea stemmed from a project to support the integration of Syrian children into Swedish society by providing them with Arabic language resources. Bond, who had previous entrepreneurial experience and a background in educational audiobooks, recognized the broader market gap and significant demand for Arabic audio content worldwide. This realization prompted the shift from a social project to a dedicated commercial platform.
The company operated on a subscription-based business model, offering users unlimited access to its entire library through its mobile applications and website. This differed from the per-book credit model used by competitors like Audible, a strategy chosen to encourage content discovery and habit formation in a market where audiobook consumption was still nascent. Kitab Sawti established itself as a major producer of Arabic audio content, operating its own network of studios across the region and working with over 100 narrators. By May 2019, the platform had over 1 million registered users and was experiencing a 20% month-on-month growth in paying subscribers. Its library grew to include over 2,500 titles, featuring regional best-sellers and internationally renowned works translated into Arabic.
The startup successfully raised a total of $9.44 million over three funding rounds, attracting notable investors such as Northzone, Bonnier Ventures, and Careem co-founders Abdulla Elyas and Magnus Olsson. In July 2020, Kitab Sawti was acquired by Storytel, a leading global audiobook streaming service also based in Sweden. The acquisition was a strategic move for Storytel to solidify its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Following the acquisition, the two entities merged their catalogs, creating the world's largest library of Arabic audiobooks with over 5,000 titles. Kitab Sawti's co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Bond, was appointed to lead the newly formed Storytel MENA division, overseeing the combined operations.
Keywords: Kitab Sawti, audiobook, Arabic content, podcast platform, Storytel, Sebastian Bond, Anton Pollak, MENA, audio streaming, digital publishing, subscription service, Arabic literature, content production, media acquisition, mobile application, edutainment, Northzone, Bonnier Ventures, Careem, language learning