Paris-based Majelan snaps up €6 million to disrupt podcast industry

French startup Majelan, the podcast distribution and production platform, has raised €6 million, bringing its total raised to €10 million.

The funds come from previous investors Idinvest Partners fund, and new investors Bpifrance. It’s also worth mentioning that French tech billionaire Xavier Niel, who we interviewed recently about his investment into the Paris scene, is also one of the shareholders, signalling the startup’s promise.

Majelan is a platform that stands at the crossroads between Netflix and Spotify. Founded in the summer of 2018, the concept is the brainchild of Mathieu Gallet, former CEO of Radio France, and Arthur Perticoz, entrepreneur behind Wynd. The platform pulls together thousands of podcasts from other platforms into one single interface, to improve the listening experience. Majelan is based on a ‘freemium’ model, with the premium offer including exclusive content accessible for €4.99 per month. In this context, the startup has launched its own audio content to compete with already well-established players such as Binge Audio and Louie Media. To date, the company claims to offer around thirty original and exclusive programmes on its platform. 

The platform initially encountered some challenges, with some of the 13 million episodes it collated not wishing to appear on the platform. Defending his project against all odds, Mathieu Gallet also experienced difficulties with the Google Play Store platform in July.

“Podcasts are growing in popularity in France, with more than 4 million people in France listening each month, a 25% increase over last year. In the United States, where this market is more advanced, 73 million Americans already use podcasts every month”, said CEO Gallet. 

Majelan will use its funds to boost its production of exclusive podcasts, and expand globally. The podcast market continues to grow, in the wake of 5G, smartphone developments and the convenience of being able to listen whilst completing other tasks such as commuting (in contrast to text/video which require a higher level of attention). In 2018, 27.9% of Europeans said they listened to podcasts, according to Statista, with the top countries being Spain, Ireland and Sweden.