Former Bank of America investment banking leader brings nearly two decades of experience across capital strategy, M&A and scaling high-growth businesses
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, July 2026 – Pocket FM, the world’s largest audio series platform, today announced the appointment of Abhilash Padival as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), strengthening its leadership team as the company accelerates its global expansion and long-term growth ambitions.
As CFO, Abhilash will lead Pocket FM’s global finance organisation, overseeing financial strategy, capital allocation, business planning, investor relations, compliance and corporate governance. He will play a key role in strengthening the company’s financial foundation as Pocket FM continues to expand internationally, invest in AI-powered storytelling and build one of the world’s leading entertainment platforms.
Abhilash joins Pocket FM from Bank of America, where he spent more than seven years, most recently leading their Consumer Internet Investment banking practice. During his tenure, he advised some of India’s most prominent start-ups on their IPO, Private capital raise, and also led a few strategic M&A transactions. Prior to Bank of America, he held leadership roles across corporate strategy, investments and M&A at Quess Corp, Altisource, Avendus Capital, and Cyient, building nearly two decades of experience across finance, corporate strategy and business transformation.
Throughout his career, Abhilash has partnered with high-growth businesses to navigate periods of rapid scale, helping leadership teams drive capital allocation, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, operational excellence and sustainable long-term growth.
“Pocket FM has built one of the most exciting consumer technology companies to emerge from India, redefining storytelling for audiences across the world,” said Rohan Nayak, Co-founder and CEO, Pocket FM. “As we enter our next phase of growth, strengthening our financial organisation and preparing the business for long-term global scale becomes increasingly important. Abhilash brings a rare combination of investment banking expertise, strategic thinking and operating experience. His perspective will be invaluable as we continue to invest in innovation, expand globally and build enduring value for our creators, customers and stakeholders. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Pocket FM leadership team.”
“Pocket FM is creating an entirely new category at the intersection of storytelling and artificial intelligence. Its global ambition, relentless pace of innovation, and creator-first ecosystem make this an incredibly exciting time to join. I look forward to partnering with the leadership team to build a world-class finance organization, support the company’s next phase of growth, and create enduring value for our creators, audiences, employees, and shareholders,” said Abhilash Padival, Chief Financial Officer, Pocket FM.
Abhilash’s appointment comes at an important stage in Pocket FM’s journey as the company continues to scale its global footprint, expand its AI-powered content ecosystem and deepen investments across technology, creators and international markets.
About Pocket FM
Pocket FM is the world’s largest audio series platform shaping the future of serialized storytelling. With a global community of over 250 million listeners, Pocket FM has pioneered the audio series format and transformed it into a mainstream entertainment category through immersive, long-form episodic storytelling.
As an AI-first entertainment company, Pocket FM combines human creativity with advanced AI to help creators write stories faster, adapt them across languages and scale successful intellectual property for audiences worldwide. Its creator ecosystem includes more than 300,000 writers and a rapidly growing library of over 100,000 audio series.
Available on iOS and Android, Pocket FM continues to redefine entertainment for audiences around the world.
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