iono.fm
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersCape Town, South Africa
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
iono.fm firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- iono.fm
- Legal name
- Iono Broadcasting (Pty) Ltd.
- Website
- https://iono.fm
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
iono.fm industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Online Audio Hosting and Streaming Platform
- NAICS
- Radio Broadcasting Stations (516110), Other Sound Recording Industries (512290)
- SIC
- Radio Broadcasting Stations (4832)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Podcast Hosting, Distribution & Listening Platforms (BPAMAJAD)
Keywords
Where iono.fm is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Cape Town
- HQ country
- South Africa
- HQ region
- Africa
Offices2 records
Markets served
iono.fm business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Podcast hosting subscriptions: Monthly podcast hosting package fees invoiced in advance (annual payment may be required in case of repeat non-payment); multiple tiers from Free public-signup tier (1 episode every 2 months, no indexing) to enterprise publisher plans. All fees are stated inclusive of VAT.
- Radio streaming subscriptions + usage fees: Per-month Commercial and Community streaming package fees invoiced in advance, plus usage-based usage fees invoiced in arrears measured in blocks of 100 peak concurrent users at R160 per block (first 500 concurrent users free). Fees are USD-tied with quarterly FX adjustments of at least 5%.
- Direct Internal advertising: Publisher itself acts as the Advertiser and arranges audio ads to be inserted in its own content, paying iono.fm a fee; Publisher submits Campaign proposal (duration, CPM, total budget, geo/time targeting) via the Administrator Portal; iono.fm invoices the Publisher monthly in arrears (or in advance for short campaigns).
- Direct External advertising: iono.fm contracts with an Advertiser to place ads in Publishers' audio content in exchange for advertising fees; iono.fm retains 20% of Advertising Revenue and pays the Publisher the remainder (80%) only after Advertiser payment is received in full. Purchase orders valid for 6 months.
- Platform Campaign advertising: Same as Direct External but with advertising targeted to defined criteria (user device, sports category, etc.); Publishers opt-in and once criteria are set, they are enrolled in all suitable Campaigns at iono.fm's discretion.
- Add-on services: Mobile app (themed mobile app for customer content), Recognition (song & ad recognition add-on), Stream archive (archive radio streams to the cloud), Analytics and Web player features sold as add-ons or via the Contact sales channel.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Monthly | Radio streaming usage fee |
| Freemium | Monthly | Podcast hosting packages (Free and paid tiers) |
| Hybrid | Monthly | Radio streaming Commercial and Community packages |
| Outcome Based/ Performance | Pay-as-you-go | Advertising — Direct Internal Campaigns |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Advertising — Direct External / Platform Campaigns |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels7 records
Marketing channels8 records
iono.fm product offering
Product offeringCore offering
iono.fm is an online audio platform that hosts podcasts and streams live radio for publishers, augmented by a dynamic audio ad insertion engine. It sells monthly podcast hosting subscriptions, monthly Commercial and Community radio streaming packages with usage-based fees above 500 concurrent listeners, three models of audio advertising (Direct Internal, Direct External, and Platform Campaigns), and add-on modules for themed mobile apps, song/ad recognition, and cloud stream archiving, all delivered via a CDN-backed Administrator Portal.
Product overview
iono.fm is an online audio platform providing podcast hosting and radio live streaming services, plus an advertising engine — a platform-plus-modules architecture anchored by three core products (Podcast hosting, Radio streaming, and Advertising) and extended with optional add-on modules (Mobile app, Recognition for song/ad fingerprinting, and Stream archive for cloud archiving). Shared features including the embeddable Player, Analytics (with realtime and dark mode), and FTP auto-publish operate across all three core products. Founded in 2008 in Cape Town, iono.fm targets developing markets with low data rates, supports the Podcasting 2.0 standard, and serves premium South African and international publishers such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, TED, East Coast Radio, and Jacaranda FM.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Podcast hosting Modern podcast hosting platform for both large radio stations running multiple shows and solo podcasters, with multiple shows and users under one account, dynamic ad insertion with country-level geo-targeting, multiple bitrates, an embeddable smart web player, perceptual loudness normalisation, unlimited downloads via CDN, Podcasting 2.0 support and automated Google Speech-to-Text transcripts.
- Radio streaming 24/7 live radio streaming service for commercial and community broadcasters, delivered via a CDN with no concurrent listener limit, multiple bitrates, flexible per-month Commercial and Community packages with usage-based fees above 500 peak concurrent listeners, real-time listener analytics, automated stream monitoring and alerts, multi-format publishing, FTP auto-publish, RCS Zetta and Jazler RadioStar now-playing metadata ingestion, and now-playing metadata submission to TuneIn and SONOS.
- Audio advertising (dynamic ad insertion) Dynamic audio ad insertion engine sold in three models: Direct Internal (publisher as advertiser booking its own campaigns), Direct External (iono.fm contracts third-party advertisers with 20% revenue share to iono.fm and 80% to the publisher, paid after advertiser settlement), and Platform Campaigns (targeted by user device, sports category and other criteria with automatic opt-in). Country-level geo-targeting, opening and closing billboards, CPM pricing and flexible budgets across small to very large campaigns.
- Mobile app (add-on) Themed white-label mobile app for publishers' podcast and radio content, extending their brand to iOS and Android devices as an add-on to the streaming and podcast hosting packages.
- Recognition (song and ad recognition add-on) Acoustic-fingerprint based recognition add-on that automatically detects songs and audio ads played in a station's 24/7 live stream, supporting royalty reporting and ad verification use cases for broadcasters and advertisers.
- Stream archive (add-on) Cloud archive add-on for radio streams that captures live-stream audio to cloud storage and exposes it on demand via the online dashboard, with archive-to-podcast publishing functionality added in November 2025.
Quantifiable outcome
- 300% growth in streaming radio and podcast listenership from Jan 2017 to Mar 2018 on the platform
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use iono.fm
Customer profileNamed customers60 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
iono.fm technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability7 records
Feature11 records
iono.fm partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
iono.fm competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Buzzsprout: Popular SMB-focused podcast hosting platform with freemium tiers, embedding tools and analytics. Comparable to iono.fm's independent/solo podcaster segment and self-serve sign-up motion.
- Libsyn: One of the longest-standing podcast hosting platforms (founded 2004) serving independent and enterprise podcasters with hosting, distribution and monetisation. Closely analogous to iono.fm in product scope (podcast hosting, analytics, distribution), though Libsyn operates primarily in the US/EU.
- Acast: Swedish-founded global podcast hosting and monetisation platform offering hosting, dynamic ad insertion and programmatic marketplace. Directly comparable to iono.fm's podcast hosting plus advertising stack, though operating at much larger global scale and targeting Western markets.
- Podbean: Podcast hosting and live audio platform offering hosting, monetisation, live streaming and a mobile app. Closely comparable to iono.fm's combination of podcast hosting plus live streaming plus branded mobile-app add-on.
- Radio.co: Online radio station platform providing streaming, automation, scheduling and listener analytics for SMB and community radio. Directly comparable to iono.fm's commercial and community radio streaming package.
- AdsWizz: Audio ad-tech platform (owned by SiriusXM) providing programmatic audio advertising and dynamic ad insertion for broadcasters and podcasters. Already integrated into iono.fm's stack (via synchroscript.deliveryengine.adswizz.com), and is the closest comparable on the dynamic-ad-insertion and audio-advertising side.
- Live365: Internet radio broadcasting platform offering hosting, distribution and monetisation for online radio stations. Comparable to iono.fm's radio streaming value proposition, particularly for community and commercial stations.
Broad incumbents
- Spotify Ad Studio: Self-serve audio advertising platform from Spotify, allowing advertisers to buy podcast and music audio inventory. Comparable to iono.fm's Direct External and Platform Campaign advertising products, though operating on Spotify's much larger global audience.
- Triton Digital: Audio streaming, measurement and ad-tech platform owned by Amazon, serving broadcasters and podcasters with enterprise-grade monetisation and programmatic audio. Comparable to iono.fm's advertising and analytics capabilities, operating at significantly larger scale globally.
- Spotify for Podcasters: Spotify's native podcast hosting and monetisation platform, integrated with Spotify's discovery and ad stack. A broad incumbent alternative for any podcaster considering iono.fm, particularly since Spotify acquired Megaphone to deepen hosting capabilities.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
iono.fm social profiles
Digital presenceiono.fm compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
iono.fm financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
iono.fm leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
iono.fm funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
iono.fm M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about iono.fm
What does iono.fm do?
iono.fm is an online audio platform that hosts podcasts and streams live radio for publishers, augmented by a dynamic audio ad insertion engine. It sells monthly podcast hosting subscriptions, monthly Commercial and Community radio streaming packages with usage-based fees above 500 concurrent listeners, three models of audio advertising (Direct Internal, Direct External, and Platform Campaigns), and add-on modules for themed mobile apps, song/ad recognition, and cloud stream archiving, all delivered via a CDN-backed Administrator Portal.
Is iono.fm a public or private company?
iono.fm is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was iono.fm founded?
iono.fm was founded in 2008. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is iono.fm based?
iono.fm is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, in the Africa region.
How does iono.fm make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Podcast hosting subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are radio streaming subscriptions + usage fees, direct Internal advertising, direct External advertising, platform Campaign advertising and add-on services.
Who are iono.fm's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Acast, Podbean, Radio.co, AdsWizz and Live365. Broad incumbents are Spotify Ad Studio, Triton Digital and Spotify for Podcasters.
Does iono.fm have an API?
No public API is recorded for iono.fm.
What industry is iono.fm in?
iono.fm's product category is Online Audio Hosting and Streaming Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMAJAD, Podcast Hosting, Distribution & Listening Platforms. Its NAICS code is 516110 and its SIC code is 4832.