Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent has invested $115m in Indian music streaming service Gaana, which is owned and was started by Times Internet.

Times Internet in-house counsel Parul Sabharwal instructed Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas partner Amit Khansaheb, principal associate Nikhil Sachdeva, senior associate Rahul Chugh and associate Mayank Malhotra.

Tencent briefed Platinum Partners partners Karam Dauletsingh and Gaurav Desai with associate Sameeksha Chowla.

Tencent also owns stakes in Indian dot-com giants Flipkart and Ola, as well as the world’s largest music service, Spotify, in Sweden.

Gaana | Tencent: Tencent leads in Gaana’s $115 million funding round

Tencent is the majority shareholder in Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest music streaming business, and also operates JOOX, a leading music streaming platform in Southeast Asia. It also holds a stake in Sweden’s Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming service.

Gaana, which has more than 60 million monthly active users and competes with Saavn, Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music, among others, will use the funds on technology developments, particularly focussing on artificial intelligence (AI) to personalise music experiences for consumers.

The company was incubated seven years ago by Times Internet, a part of the media group that publishes ET.

reported The Economic Times