Chennai: Hoopr.ai, the music licensing and distribution platform founded by composer-entrepreneur Gaurav Dagaonkar, has secured Pre-Series A funding from early-stage investment collective The Chennai Angels (TCA), as the company looks to scale its mission of simplifying music licensing for brands, creators, and rights holders in India.
The investment adds to Hoopr’s existing backers, which include Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), MeitY Startup Hub, 100Unicorns, VCats Marketing, 91 Ventures, and angel investor Amit Nanavati. Financial details of the latest round were not disclosed.
Dagaonkar said the partnership with TCA goes beyond capital, citing the network and operator expertise the group brings. “From our very first conversation, it was clear they understood not just the business, but the mission,” he said in a LinkedIn announcement, describing music licensing in India as “broken for too long” and positioning Hoopr as a platform aimed at making licensing simple, transparent, and scalable.
Hoopr operates at the intersection of music rights management and creator-brand collaboration, offering licensed music for commercial use while ensuring that labels and artists are compensated. The startup also runs Songfest India, a music IP and live-content initiative, positioning itself as a broader ecosystem player in music monetisation.
Investors at TCA said the company is addressing a structural gap in India’s creative economy. Srinivasan B, Managing Director of Vikatan Group and an investor through The Chennai Angels, noted that Hoopr is “attempting to solve a real, existential problem for creators, brands and music labels at scale,” adding that the company’s proof of concept and minimum viable product are already established. He also pointed to industry mentorship around the startup, including media veteran Sanjay Wadhwa, as a positive signal for execution.
India’s music licensing market has long been characterised by fragmented rights ownership, opaque pricing, and compliance challenges for commercial users, particularly in digital and short-form content. With the rise of influencer marketing, OTT, gaming, and branded content, demand for cleared music assets has expanded rapidly, creating opportunity for structured licensing platforms.
Hoopr’s stated goal is to enable frictionless music usage across digital media while ensuring rights holders are “respected and rewarded,” aligning with broader industry moves toward transparent royalty flows and creator-centric monetisation models.
The fresh capital is expected to support product development, catalogue expansion, and partnerships with labels, agencies, and platforms, as Hoopr seeks to position itself as a scalable infrastructure layer for music licensing in India and other emerging markets.
