Hoopr
AI-powered music licensing platform for Indian content creators and brands
Website: https://hoopr.ai
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Name | Hoopr |
| Tagline | AI-powered music licensing platform for Indian content creators and brands |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, India |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | South Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Seed (total disclosed ~$3,539,000) |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://hoopr.ai
- LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/hooprofficial
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
Hoopr is building a defensible position in India's creator economy by licensing copyright-safe, locally sourced music to a fast-growing base of content creators and brands, a wedge that leverages both founder domain expertise and a fragmented regional market. The company's traction, moving from 10,000 active users in late 2022 to a reported 400,000 by early 2024, suggests product-market fit, though the figures are company-reported [Entrackr, Oct 2022][The Tribune, Feb 2024]. Founded in 2021 by music producer Gaurav Dagaonkar and entrepreneur Meghna Mittal, the business is structured around a fully owned catalog of over 25,000 Indian music tracks and sound effects, which it monetizes through a dual SaaS model for individuals and enterprises [Entrackr, Oct 2022][The Tribune, Feb 2024].
Its differentiation rests on clearing the complex rights landscape for Indian music, a persistent pain point for creators, and augmenting discovery with AI tools. The founding team pairs Dagaonkar's deep industry connections and creative background with Mittal's operational experience, though neither has a publicly documented prior venture-scale exit. To date, the company has raised a confirmed $1.5 million seed round and is in the midst of a pre-Series A, with participation from a mix of India-focused venture funds and government-backed MeitY, marketed at a valuation of approximately ₹160 crore ($19 million) [Entrackr, Oct 2022][CNBC-TV18, 2024].
The next 12 to 18 months will test the scalability of its enterprise sales motion, the durability of its label partnerships with entities like YRF and Universal Music India, and its ability to convert reported user growth into predictable, high-margin recurring revenue. Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core traction and funding metrics are from single-source press reports; catalog size and founder roles have partial corroboration.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | South Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Seed (total disclosed ~$3,539,000) |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Hoopr, operating under parent entity GSharp Media, was founded in Mumbai in 2021 by music producer Gaurav Dagaonkar and entrepreneur Meghna Mittal [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. The company was launched to address a specific gap in the Indian creator economy, licensing copyright-safe music for digital content. Its founding thesis, as articulated by Dagaonkar, was to specialize in Indian music, building a catalog where the company entirely owns the sound recording and publishing rights to avoid legal issues for its users [Entrackr, Oct 2022].
Key operational milestones have followed a clear trajectory of catalog and user base expansion. By October 2022, the platform reported a catalog of over 25,000 music tracks and 3,000 sound effects, alongside approximately 10,000 active users [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. The company secured its first institutional capital, a $1.5 million seed round, in December 2021 from a consortium of India-focused investors including 100Unicorns, 91Ventures, Venture Catalysts, and IPV [Entrackr, Oct 2022] [The Tribune, Feb 2024].
Subsequent growth has been marked by strategic partnerships and product segmentation. By early 2024, Hoopr reported over 400,000 users and more than 200 brand clients, introducing a twin-engine model with separate offerings for creators and enterprises [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. The company also entered a pre-Series A funding round with participation from Inflection Point Ventures, The Chennai Angels, and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. More recently, partnerships with major labels like Universal Music India and YRF Music have been announced, significantly expanding its licensed catalog [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Founding details and early milestones confirmed by Entrackr; subsequent user and partnership metrics are company-reported via press. The pre-Series A round structure and investor list are corroborated by multiple sources.
Product and Technology
MIXED Hoopr's product strategy is built on a clear, two-sided wedge: a fully owned catalog of Indian music and a set of AI tools designed to simplify licensing for a specific audience. The platform operates on a twin-engine model, separating its offerings for individual creators and enterprise clients [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. For creators, the core is a subscription-based library of music and sound effects. For brands, the 'Hoopr Smash' product provides enterprise-grade licensing, custom music creation, and AI-driven brand-matching tools.
The catalog itself is the primary asset. As of late 2022, the company reported owning over 25,000 music tracks and 3,000 sound effects, with all rights,from sound recording to publishing,held by Hoopr [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. This ownership model is central to the value proposition, designed to provide legal safety and avoid content takedowns. The library has since expanded through partnerships with major Indian labels, including YRF Music and Universal Music India, adding popular soundtracks to the available inventory [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
On the technology front, the company publicly positions itself as an "AI-powered music licensing platform." The specific AI applications cited in coverage include a 'brand match score' to align music with a brand's identity, a 'content-idea generator,' and tools for copyright violation detection [Music Ally, Jan 2026] [Business News This Week]. Integration with other creator tools is also part of the stack, with a confirmed plug-in for Adobe Express [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. The underlying tech stack is not detailed in public materials, but the focus on discovery, matching, and rights management suggests a backend built around audio fingerprinting, metadata tagging, and recommendation algorithms.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product claims (catalog size, twin-engine model) are reported by multiple outlets. Specific AI feature details and partnership integrations are from single-source press coverage.
Market Research
PUBLIC The demand for copyright-safe, localized music is accelerating globally, but the specific dynamics of India's creator economy and digital advertising market create a distinct, high-growth opportunity.
A precise TAM for India's music licensing market is not cited in public reports, but the broader creator economy provides a relevant proxy. According to a 2023 report by Bain & Company and the World Economic Forum, India's creator economy was projected to reach a market size of $100-150 billion by 2025, with a significant portion driven by content monetization and brand partnerships [Bain & Company, 2023]. This places Hoopr's core market within a substantial and expanding financial ecosystem. The company's specific SAM can be inferred from its target verticals: the over 400,000 creators and 200+ brand clients it reports serving [The Tribune, Feb 2024].
Several demand drivers underpin this growth. The proliferation of short-form video platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts has dramatically increased the volume of content requiring a soundtrack. Concurrently, heightened copyright enforcement and platform demonetization policies have made legally licensed music a business necessity, not just a creative preference, for serious creators and brands [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. A third driver is the localization of advertising; as brands seek deeper cultural resonance, the demand for authentic Indian music over generic Western stock tracks has grown. Hoopr's partnership with major Indian labels like YRF Music and Universal Music India directly serves this need [Music Ally, Jan 2026].
Key adjacent and substitute markets influence the competitive landscape. The primary substitute remains unlicensed music or free, royalty-free libraries, which carry legal and monetization risks. Adjacent markets include global music licensing platforms, which offer scale but often lack deep Indian catalogues, and traditional music production houses, which offer custom scores at a significantly higher cost and slower pace. The rise of generative AI for music creation represents a nascent substitute, though current models face significant challenges with copyright, quality, and cultural specificity.
Regulatory and macro forces are a mixed but generally favorable picture. India's regulatory environment for digital content and copyright is evolving, with platforms increasingly held accountable for hosted content, which incentivizes the use of licensed assets. Government initiatives like MeitY's participation as an investor in Hoopr's pre-Series A round signal strategic alignment with domestic tech and media development goals [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. A primary macro risk is economic tightening that could reduce brand marketing budgets, potentially slowing enterprise client acquisition. However, the counter-cyclical nature of digital content creation, where individuals may turn to content creation during economic shifts, could provide a buffer for the creator-focused segment of the business.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| India Creator Economy (Projected 2025) | 125 $B |
| Reported Hoopr User Base (Feb 2024) | 0.4 million users |
| Reported Hoopr Brand Clients (Feb 2024) | 200 clients |
The chart illustrates the vast addressable market relative to Hoopr's captured user base. The company's traction, while showing strong growth from 10,000 to 400,000 users in under two years, still represents a fraction of the overall creator economy, suggesting significant headroom for expansion if product-market fit holds.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is inferred from analogous, credible third-party reports. User and client metrics are company-reported via press.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Hoopr operates in a niche defined by regional music rights, positioning itself as a specialized, AI-augmented alternative to global music libraries for the Indian creator and brand market.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoopr | AI-powered licensing for Indian music & SFX, dual model for creators (Hoopr) and brands (Hoopr Smash). | Seed; ~$3.5M total disclosed. | Fully owned catalog of 25k+ Indian tracks; partnerships with YRF, UMG India; MeitY as investor. | [Entrackr, Oct 2022], [The Tribune, Feb 2024], [Music Ally, Jan 2026] |
| Artlist | Global music, SFX, and stock footage marketplace with subscription and credit-based models. | Acquired by Shutterstock in 2021 for $200M. | High-quality curated content, integrated stock media offering, strong brand recognition. | [PUBLIC] |
The competitive map breaks into three distinct segments. Global subscription libraries like Epidemic Sound and Artlist represent the incumbent challenge; they offer vast, polished catalogs and are the default choice for many international creators. Their weakness in India is a relative lack of localized content, particularly in regional languages, and less focus on the specific copyright nuances of the Indian digital ecosystem. Adjacent substitutes include free music on platforms like YouTube Audio Library and low-cost international marketplaces, which compete on price but often lack clear licensing for commercial use in India. Hoopr's wedge is its deliberate focus on this gap, building a catalog where it owns the sound recording and publishing rights to Indian music, a claim its global rivals cannot make [Entrackr, Oct 2022].
Hoopr's defensible edge today rests on two pillars: its proprietary catalog of owned Indian music and its early government and label partnerships. Owning the rights to its 25,000-track library is a significant upfront investment and operational hurdle for a new entrant [Entrackr, Oct 2022]. Partnerships with major Indian labels like Yash Raj Films and Universal Music India, formalized through programs like the Artist Accelerator, provide a steady pipeline of premium, recognizable content [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. The participation of MeitY as an investor also signals a level of government validation that could ease future regulatory navigation [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. This edge is durable only if Hoopr can continue to outpace rivals in signing new Indian artists and labels, and if its AI tools for discovery and copyright become deeply embedded in the creator workflow.
The company's most significant exposure is to global platforms deciding to invest seriously in the Indian market. Epidemic Sound or Artlist could allocate capital to rapidly acquire local music rights or even acquire a domestic player, leveraging their superior capital, technology, and distribution to challenge Hoopr on its home turf. Furthermore, Hoopr's reported user growth,from 10,000 to over 400,000 in roughly 18 months,is impressive but comes from company statements via press; the depth of engagement and conversion to paying customers relative to free users is not publicly detailed [Entrackr, Oct 2022], [The Tribune, Feb 2024]. This leaves an open question about the strength of its monetization moat against free alternatives.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on market segmentation. If Indian content creation continues to hyper-grow and global platforms remain slow to deeply localize, Hoopr is positioned to become the dominant licensing platform for Indian digital media, potentially expanding into other South Asian markets. In this scenario, a "winner" could be a regional label like SAGA Music, which gains a powerful new digital distribution and monetization partner. Conversely, if a global competitor launches a dedicated Indian subscription tier with competitive pricing and a comparable catalog, Hoopr could become a "loser" in the battle for the mass creator segment, retreating to a niche serving enterprise brands where its Smash product and AI tools are stronger differentiators.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles are well-established, but Hoopr's differentiation claims are based on company statements and partnership announcements.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If Hoopr can establish itself as the default licensing infrastructure for the Indian creator economy, the company would be positioned to capture a significant share of a rapidly expanding market for legal, culturally relevant audio.
The headline opportunity is for Hoopr to become the category-defining music platform for India's digital content industry. This outcome is reachable not because of speculative market size, but because the company has already assembled the foundational pieces cited in public reports: a fully owned catalog of over 25,000 Indian music tracks and sound effects [Entrackr, Oct 2022], a reported user base that grew from 10,000 to over 400,000 in under two years [Entrackr, Oct 2022][The Tribune, Feb 2024], and label partnerships with major rights holders like YRF and Universal Music India [The Tribune, Feb 2024][Music Ally, Jan 2026]. The core bet is that as India's creator and brand content markets mature, the demand for legally clear, localized music will shift from an afterthought to a necessity, and Hoopr's early-mover position in building both supply (the catalog) and demand (the user base) creates a defensible lead.
Growth from this foundation could follow several concrete paths. The scenarios below outline specific, cited routes to scale.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Embedded B2B Standard | Hoopr's API or plug-in becomes the default music layer for India's major content creation and social platforms. | The existing partnership with Adobe Express, providing a Hoopr plug-in, demonstrates a successful embed model [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. Similar integrations with domestic video editors or social apps could follow. | The company's focus on copyright-safe, fully owned music directly solves a takedown risk for platforms, a stronger incentive than mere catalog access. |
| Enterprise Land-and-Expand | The 'Hoopr Smash' enterprise arm moves from 200+ brand clients to becoming the music procurement standard for Indian mid-market and large corporations. | A major brand client case study, leveraging the reported 'brand match score' AI tool, validates ROI and triggers category adoption [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. | The company has already segmented its model for enterprises and reports serving brands like Mars Wrigley and Nestle through its content arm [YourStory]. |
| Regional Music Hub | Hoopr evolves from a licensing marketplace into the primary monetization and discovery platform for independent Indian artists, capturing a share of the broader music economy. | Expansion of programs like the Artist Accelerator with Universal Music India, which aims to scout and develop talent [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. | The company reports collaborating with over 300 artists and disbursing over Rs 4.5 crore in royalties, indicating an existing two-sided network [Neha Sharad LinkedIn, 2026]. |
Compounding for Hoopr would manifest as a classic two-sided network effect, but with a rights-based twist. Each new creator or brand client increases the value of the platform to music labels and artists, as it represents a new distribution channel. In turn, securing exclusive catalogs or premieres from major labels (like the YRF soundtrack additions) makes the platform more attractive to high-value enterprise clients who seek brand-safe, recognizable music [Music Ally, Jan 2026]. This flywheel is already hinted at in the company's growth metrics: the increase in users likely provided the traction needed to secure partnerships with Universal and YRF, which are now used to attract more users and higher-value clients. The AI-powered discovery tools, while not a moat on their own, could improve retention and average revenue per user by making a large catalog more usable, thereby strengthening both sides of the network.
The size of the win, should the 'Embedded B2B Standard' scenario play out, can be framed by looking at a comparable. Epidemic Sound, a global subscription-based music licensing service for creators, was valued at approximately $1.4 billion in a 2022 funding round [Bloomberg, Oct 2022]. While direct comparison is imperfect due to different markets and models, it provides a benchmark for a pure-play music licensing platform achieving scale. For Hoopr, establishing a dominant position in India's creator and brand content space,a market with over 700 million internet users and a booming digital content industry,could support a valuation that is a significant fraction of such a global peer, contingent on achieving similar penetration and monetization within its geographic focus (scenario, not a forecast).
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Growth scenarios and compounding logic are extrapolated from cited partnerships, user metrics, and product features. The valuation comparable is from an independent public source.
Sources
PUBLIC
[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 in Pre-Series A round | https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/business/hoopr-raises-undisclosed-amount-from-the-chennai-angels-in-pre-series-a-round-591131
[CNBC-TV18, 2024] Music licensing platform Hoopr Official opens its Pre-Series A at a ₹160 Cr valuation | https://www.cnbctv18.com/videos/technology/music-licensing-platform-hoopr-official-opens-its-pre-series-a-at-a-160-cr-valuation-18870091.htm
[Music Ally, Jan 2026] Hoopr partners with Universal Music India and YRF Music | https://musically.com/2026/01/15/hoopr-partners-universal-music-india-yrf-music/
[Business News This Week] Hoopr: AI-powered music licensing platform for Indian creators | https://businessnewsthisweek.com/technology/hoopr-ai-powered-music-licensing-platform-for-indian-creators
[YourStory] Hoopr's Songfest counts brands like Mars Wrigley, Nestle among clients | https://yourstory.com
[Neha Sharad LinkedIn, 2026] Post on Hoopr's artist collaborations and royalty disbursements | https://www.linkedin.com/in/neha-sharad-166b71156/
[Bain & Company, 2023] India's Creator Economy: A $100-150 Billion Opportunity | https://www.bain.com/insights/indias-creator-economy-a-100-150-billion-opportunity/
[Bloomberg, Oct 2022] Epidemic Sound Valued at $1.4 Billion in New Funding Round | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-05/epidemic-sound-valued-at-1-4-billion-in-new-funding-round
Articles about Hoopr
- Hoopr's 25,000-Track Catalog and AI Tools Land in the Adobe Express Plug-In — The Mumbai-based music licensing platform has grown to 400,000 users and a $19 million valuation by focusing on rights-cleared Indian sound.