Storytel, the audiobook subscription company, has had a bumpy ride on the stock market the last 2 years, especially in 2022 after founder Jonas Tellander left his role as CEO in February 2022.
Founder leaving, somewhat of a reset in the growth/profitability trade-off and crashing tech valuations is an unpleasant combination. Still, the company managed to stay above two million subscribers in Q4 of 2022, of which a little more than half in the Nordic countries.
Two things worth noting:
- Despite losing subscribers during 2022, Storytel has grown revenue as the average revenue per user has increased
- Gross profit for non-Nordic countries was 47.3 % in Q3, compared to 41 % in the Nordic countries and the 25 % gross margin Spotify had in that period (across both Premium and ad-supported).