Arabic audiobook startup Kitab Sawti gets acquired by Storytel

  • Date: 08-Jul-2020
  • Source: MENAbytes
  • Sector:Technology
  • Country:GCC
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Arabic audiobook startup Kitab Sawti gets acquired by Storytel

Kitab Sawti, the Arabic audiobook and podcasts platform has been acquired by the world's leading audiobook and ebook streaming services company Storytel, the two companies announced in a statement to MENAbytes today.

"The combined line-up of Storytel Arabia and Kitab Sawti forms a unique offering of audio content production and distribution that will give consumers access to the biggest and richest Arabic audiobook library in the world,“ said the joint statement by the two companies.

The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed but the statement noted that the purchase price will be partly in cash and partly through the issuance of shares in Storytel. It also explained that the transaction will not have a substantial impact on the finances of Storytel which currently has a market cap of about $1.5 billion (SEK 13.81 billion).

Kitab Sawti was founded in 2016 by Swedish entrepreneurs Sebastian Bond and Anton Pollak as a project to help Syrian refugees in schools, with the aim to make it easy for them to become a part of the Swedish society. During its early days, the founders then realized the demand for Arabic audiobooks all around the world and built a dedicated platform for it.

The startup that moved