Hoopr Raises Funds To Develop AI-Powered Music Selection For Video Creators

Music licensing marketplace Hoopr has raised $1.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts. Angel investors Ashneer Grover (BharatPe), Anshoo Sharma (Magicpin), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Giri Malpani, Anuraag Srivastava (Rainshine Entertainment) Pradyumna Agrawal (Temasek), and Vaibhav Karnavat also participated in the round.

Founded in 2018, GSharp Media is a content and technology company that operates the brands Songfest India and Hoopr. Hoopr allows video creators and businesses to license/ royalty-free music for videos, advertisements and films. 

The startup will use the freshly-raised funds towards strengthening its tech offering including the development of an AI-powered engine that helps video creators find the right soundtrack for their videos. Some of the funds will also be mobilised towards building a larger library of themes, songs and sound effects geared towards individual creators, brands, agencies and platforms. 

“Work-from-home has enabled a lot of fence-sitters to join the creators’ bandwagon and generate a primary/secondary source of income. Given this backdrop, we envisage immense potential for Hoopr due to its royalty-free model which reaches to the grassroot level of the creator economy in India,” said Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, cofounder of 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts. 

According to Inc42 Plus, India has more than 100 Mn creators across various different platforms earning between INR 15,000 and INR 50 lakh a month from their work. YouTube is by far the most popular medium for creators with more than 435 Mn users in the country.  

If you want to legally use music of any kind on your YouTube video, you are required to do so using music you have a license to use. Failing to do so may result in your content being taken down or demonetised.

“We’d like to thank our investors for their belief and conviction in us. At GSharp Media we believe in creating data and technology driven products and brands that help creators. We will continue to invest in growing our library and building features on the Hoopr platform across the next 12 months. For me personally, the fact that Hoopr provides millions of music creators a new source of income, is a very satisfying feeling.” said Gaurav Dagaonkar, cofounder and CEO of Hoopr.

The global music publishing industry market size was valued at $5.96 Bn in 2020 and is projected to reach $9.35 Bn by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.9% during the period. Last week, Indian audio over-the-top (OTT) app Pocket FM had raised $22.4 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Times Group and Tanglin Ventures. 

Update: We have updated the list of investors to include Vaibhav Karnavat after a request