Acast is a Swedish-founded

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

that provides hosting, monetization and growth support for

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, and podcast advertising solutions for brands and media agencies. Launching in 2014, it developed a dynamic insertion technology which can target advertising within podcasts based on location, time, and personal data. The company champions an independent and open ecosystem for podcasting, where podcasts hosted with Acast are available on all podcast listening apps. Acast was founded by and Måns Ulvestam in 2013; together with Johan Billgren as co-founder. Acast hosts over 88,000 podcasts, with over 430 million listens every month. The company operates worldwide with a physical presence in 15 countries, and has its headquarters in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. In addition to the founders, Bonnier has also invested in the company. In 2018, additional investors stepped in with more than $67 million. In 2019, the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

invested 25 million euros in Acast, and on 17 June 2021, Acast was listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Market at a valuation of approximately SEK 7 billion. Acast enables digital publishers to insert ads targeting niche audiences. The platform distributes, monetizes and markets podcasts including My Dad Wrote A Porno, The Adam Buxton Podcast and Shagged Married Annoyed, as well as publishers including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'', '' Vogue'' and the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''.

History

In 2014, four months after launch, Acast was named Start-up of the Year by IDG magazine, '' Internetworld'', and ‘Most innovative media service’ at the mobile industry awards . In May 2015, Acast closed a $5m Series A funding round, led by Bonnier Growth Media. This was supplemented by an undisclosed follow-on investment from early-stage

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm MOOR, owned by Kaj Hed, majority owner of Rovio Entertainment. In 2016, Acast launched a paid subscription service called Acast+. In December 2018 the company raised $35 million from AP1 and Swedbank Robur ( sv) funds Ny Teknik and Microcap in Series C funding. This has brought total funding to more than $67 million. In 2019, Acast acquired Pippa, another podcast hosting platform. Since 2019, Acast has offered a free hosting tier for podcasts. The European Investment Bank invested €25 million in Acast in 2019. In early 2021, Acast announced the acquisition of RadioPublic, a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-based startup founded by the public radio organization PRX. In April 2021, rumours about an

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surfaced. Founders Rosander and Ulvestam sold their last shares earlier in 2021, to fund their new startup . Queerstories joined the Acast Creator Network in May 2021. In March 2022, Acast announced that they would discontinue their podcast client app. The company cited its decreased importance as a source of user data and their preference for platform-independence in the decision. In July 2022, Acast signed an agreement to acquire Podchaser, a platform-agnostic podcast database with user reviews, for $27 million by August 2022. In August 2022, Acast was ranked #2 in Podtrac's ranking of ad sales networks for podcasts in the US. In November 2022, Acast entered into a partnership with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. Through the agreement

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...

bought all advertising space for thousands of Acast's podcasts, allowing Amazon customers to listen to those shows ad-free. In February 2024, RadioPublic announced their app would close permanently at the end of March. After that date, RadioPublic show links began redirecting to the same shows on Podchaser.

Notable podcasts hosted by Acast

Present

* ''

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' (or ''RHLSTP'' ()) and ''Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast'' are two related comedy podcasts, created and hosted by United Kingdom, British comedian Richard Herring. Hosted on The B ...

'' * '' The Adam Buxton Podcast'' * '' Distraction Pieces Podcast'' * '' Dungeons & Daddies'' * ''

The Magnus Archives ''The Magnus Archives'' is a supernatural horror Podcast#Fiction_podcast, fiction podcast written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall, and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims starred as the Head Archivist for the fictional Magnus Ins ...

'' * '' The Penguin Podcast'' * '' The Indy Football Podcast'' * '' The Football Ramble'' * '' Shagged Married Annoyed'' * ''

The Young Turks ''The Young Turks'' (''TYT'') is an American progressive and left-wing populist sociopolitical news and commentary program live streamed on social media platforms YouTube and Twitch, and additionally selected television channels. ''TYT'' se ...

'' * '' Aunty Donna Podcast'' * '' WTF with Marc Maron'' * '' Toni and Ryan Podcast''

Past

* '' My Dad Wrote a Porno''

References

{{reflist Podcasting companies Companies based in Stockholm Companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm