Acast announces 2018 financial results - doubles revenue to over $20m

2018 was the year when the Swedish podcast company went from start-up to scale-up, doubled its revenue again and became the largest global player in the podcast industry

Stockholm, Sweden—Acast - the world’s largest podcast company - this week announced the company financials for year ending 2018. In 2018, Acast became the leading global player in the podcasting space, entering three new markets (New Zealand, Canada and Ireland), growing from 62 to 110 employees and seeing revenue grow 100% with improved gross margin compared to the previous year. Total sales for 2018 ended at over $20 million, mainly driven by strong development in the UK and the US. Acast reached a total of 1.3 billion listens for the year across 195 countries.

During the year, costs increased 47% and the company became more effective in growing revenue per cost unit. Key costs mainly include development in Acast’s tech and increased efforts in becoming the dominant player in the US.

In 2018, it was announced that the BBC had chosen Acast as the official commercial partner for its podcasts and digital audio outside of the UK. This was a huge milestone as it marked the first time ever that the BBC would offer advertising in their podcasts and other audio formats, from entertainment and drama shows to global news programmes.

Another important highlight during 2018 was the strategic partnership signed with Spotify in October, which allowed Acast podcasts to be listened to on the Spotify platform. During 2018, Acast also were the first (and still the only) podcast company to launch the new dynamic ad creative offering “A Million Ads”, a new solution for advertisers to create customised podcast campaigns based on data such as location, time, genre and even weather.

Finally, another significant milestone in 2018 was the successful C-series funding round that Acast closed just before Christmas. $33 million was raised to support and finance Acast’s business plan, focussed on increasing the development of its technology, as well as further international expansion.

Ross Adams, CEO of Acast said: “2018 was a tremendous year for Acast and doubling our sales is real proof of that, allowing us to become the biggest global player in the podcast market. Raising such a significant amount of investment has allowed us to accelerate our growth even faster throughout 2019. We have continued our expansion into new markets such as France and Germany, and in established markets such as the UK, we are now by far the leading commercial platform for podcasts. We are putting yet more effort into innovation in our technology, and seen huge growth both in terms of staff and turnover. Finally, we have now passed the €50 million mark in money paid back to podcasters in Europe since the company began. It’s a really exciting time at Acast.”

About Acast

Acast is the world’s largest podcast company. Since 2014, Acast has been the engine powering audio for makers all over the world. At its core, Acast connects audio makers with the financial support they need to create amazing content while also delivering the audience they want. Acast works with podcasts globally including My Dad Wrote a Porno, Off Menu, David Tennant Does A Podcast With, The Adam Buxton Podcast, Sanspants Radio, Alice & Bianca, Watch What Crappens and Varvet as well as those of publishers such as the Times, the Economist, Guardian, VICE and Vogue. As a global business, Acast has offices around the world from Stockholm to Sydney and a team of 110 talented audio lovers working diligently to create a sustainable audio and voice ecosystem to ensure that the audio industry continues to grow and flourish. Acast was founded by Karl Rosander and Mans Ulvestam together with co-founder Johan Billgren.