You upload a 30-second Reel of a Mumbai street market, the colors a blur of turmeric and marigold. The search bar asks for mood: festive, bustling, Indian. You type 'dhol' and 'crowd'. In seconds, a grid of thumbnails appears, each track tagged with a percentage score for 'brand match' and a one-click license button that promises no copyright strikes. This is the core transaction of Hoopr, a music licensing platform built not for Hollywood trailers but for India's exploding class of vernacular creators. The interface feels like any other stock library, until you notice the details: the artist names are Singh and Sharma, not Smith; the suggested tags include 'shaadi' and 'chaat'; the most-played playlist is called 'Trending on YouTube Shorts'.
The wedge is ownership, not just access
Hoopr's founding thesis, articulated by music producer and CEO Gaurav Dagaonkar, is simple: 'Our USP is we specialize in Indian music' [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. The global giants in this space, like Epidemic Sound and Artlist, offer vast libraries of production music, but their Indian catalogues are often thin or built through licensing deals that can be region-locked. Hoopr's differentiation is a fully owned catalog of over 25,000 music tracks and 3,000 sound effects, where the company holds all rights from sound recording to publishing [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. For a creator or brand, this translates to a straightforward promise: download the track, get a digital license file, use it anywhere. No takedowns, no lawsuits, no worrying about the complex web of Indian music copyrights that has traditionally been a minefield for digital content.
This rights-first approach has allowed Hoopr to build a twin-engine model. Hoopr serves individual creators, YouTubers, and streamers, while Hoopr Smash targets enterprises and brands [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. The traction metrics, while company-reported, suggest the wedge is working. From about 10,000 active users in late 2022, Hoopr claims to have grown to over 400,000 users and 200+ brand clients by early 2024 [Entrackr, Oct 2022] [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. The company also reports disbursing over Rs 4.5 crore in royalties to artists over three years [Neha Sharad LinkedIn, 2026].
Building the pipes for Indian sound
The product evolution over the past year reads like a playbook for embedding a niche platform into the broader creator toolkit. Hoopr has systematically built partnerships that put its catalog where Indian creators already work.
- Label deals. Partnerships with major Indian music houses like YRF Music and Universal Music India bring popular, recognizable soundtracks into the library, including tracks from films like War 2 [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
- Tool integration. The launch of a plug-in for Adobe Express places Hoopr's search and licensing directly inside a key editing suite for social media content [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
- AI discovery. Beyond simple keyword search, Hoopr has rolled out AI-powered tools like a 'brand match score' and a 'content-idea generator,' aiming to move from a music library to a creative assistant [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
These moves are less about competing on raw track count with global players and more about becoming the default, trusted source for Indian audio. The catalog is the moat, but the user experience,deeply integrated, legally clear, and culturally specific,is the castle.
Funding a catalog and a team
Hoopr has raised a total of approximately $3.5 million across several seed and pre-Series A rounds from a cohort of India-focused investors including 100Unicorns, 91Ventures, and Inflection Point Ventures [Tracxn, 2026]. A pre-Series A round in 2023-2024 was reportedly opened at a valuation of ₹160 crore (roughly $19 million) [CNBC-TV18, 2024]. The capital appears to have been deployed primarily into catalog acquisition, tech development, and team building.
The founding team blends artistic and operational DNA. Gaurav Dagaonkar, the CEO, is a practicing music producer and IIM Ahmedabad graduate, providing both creative credibility and business rigor [Entrackr, Oct 2022] [All About Marketing Podcast]. Co-founder Meghna Mittal, with a background at startups like Hubilo, leads marketing and growth [Startup Story, 2021]. This combination is evident in the product: it feels built by someone who knows how a track is composed, but scaled by someone who knows how to acquire users.
| Round | Approx. Amount | Key Investors | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $1.5M | 100Unicorns, 91Ventures, Venture Catalysts, IPV | 2021 |
| Pre-Series A | Undisclosed | Inflection Point Ventures, The Chennai Angels, MeitY | 2023-2024 |
The counterfactual: scaling a niche
The most credible risk for Hoopr is the inherent tension in its strategy. By doubling down on Indian music, it owns a specific cultural lane but may face a ceiling on total addressable market compared to global competitors. The platform's success is tied to the growth of India's professional creator economy,a vibrant but still-emerging sector. Furthermore, the 'fully owned' catalog model is capital intensive; each new track requires an upfront investment, unlike pure aggregation models.
Hoopr's answer seems to be vertical integration and ecosystem capture. The partnership with Universal Music India on an 'Artist Accelerator' programme suggests a move to not just license music, but to cultivate the source [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. By becoming a revenue pipeline for artists and a creative tool for brands, Hoopr aims to be indispensable to the Indian audio supply chain itself. The next twelve months will test whether this depth can convert a strong regional position into a defensible, profitable business at scale. The key milestone to watch is enterprise adoption; landing a flagship brand deal that uses Hoopr Smash end-to-end would validate the platform's move upmarket.
For now, the product answers a quiet but pervasive cultural question. In a world where every smartphone is a studio, what does a soundtrack sound like when it's not from Los Angeles or Stockholm, but from Delhi and Chennai? Hoopr is betting it sounds like ownership, clarity, and a dhol beat that doesn't get your video taken down.
Sources
- [Entrackr, Oct 2022] Hoopr gives Indian independent music artists a platform to get discovered | https://entrackr.com
- [The Tribune, Feb 2024] Hoopr raises undisclosed amount from The Chennai Angels | https://www.tribuneindia.com
- [Tracxn, 2026] Hoopr - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding, Competitors & Financials | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/hoopr/__vEkPzd6ANvI29ma4z4mvAq3yvjRSxEbe6tmfH-e2yBM
- [CNBC-TV18, 2024] Music licensing platform Hoopr Official opens its Pre-Series A at a ₹160 Cr valuation | https://www.cnbctv18.com
- [Neha Sharad LinkedIn, 2026] Post on Hoopr's royalty disbursements | https://www.linkedin.com/in/neha-sharad-166b71156/
- [Music Ally, Jan 2026] Hoopr partners with Universal Music India, YRF; launches Adobe Express plugin | https://musically.com
- [All About Marketing Podcast] Interview with Gaurav Dagaonkar | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWJuco-qSVc
- [Startup Story, 2021] Profile on Hoopr's founding | https://startupstorymedia.com