The advertising company, Acast, has announced that it has acquired RadioPublic, the startup which spun out of public radio marketplace PRX back in 2016.
Initially, the top product of RadioPublic was a mobile app. It supported podcast listening, and it is a great supporter of that. According to the co-founder, Matt MacDonalds, the main focus of the team was to develop new products for podcasters.
MacDonalds said in a statement, “We had made a big roadmap of the things that we wanted to develop. However, we realized that we could function well by partnering with bigger organizations.”
With the passage of time, they realized that Acast wasn’t just a partner; it was an owner. The business of the company (https://www.acast.com/en) still revolves around advertising. However, it has expanded through different tools, like the Open Hosting Program. Now, it has around 20,000 podcasts with 300 million monthly listeners. Podcasting has become quite popular, and even platforms like Spotify have invested in podcasting. (https://rushhourdaily.com/spotify-opens-its-podcast-catalog-to-third-party-apps/).
The chief business and strategy officer of Acast, Leandro Saucedo, stated, “We firmly believe in podcasting, and we are its strong proponent. We are quite happy with the achievements of RadioPublic. We also believe that now is the best time to bring the talented team of RadioPublic and the missions of the company into the Acast fold.”
Both the concerned parties haven’t disclosed the final terms of the acquisition. However, Acast states that it won’t affect the operations of RadioPublic.
The CTO, Quamme Rhoden, and MacDonald have both joined Acast. They will put the features of RadioPublic in the Acast platform. However, MacDonalds said that the startup plans to support many new products in the future.
He stated that the main focus of the team will be to “strengthen and deepen the affinity and bond between the listener and the podcaster.” He also added that this is the place where the main opportunity is present.
