Willard Ahdritz, Rohan Nesho Jain Paul Brissman/Courtesy Ahdritz Capital

New Delhi-based distributor Madverse Music Group said on Thursday (June 11) it secured seed funding from a group of investors led by Kobalt founder Willard Ahdritz‘s investment firm, Ahdritz Capital.

Founded in 2023 by CEO Rohan Nesho Jain, Madverse provides digital distribution services to independent music clients for a monthly fee starting at $19.99, similar to TuneCore and Distrokid. Jain says where Madverse distinguishes itself is in how it uses AI to enhance its publishing, administration, advertising and other services to keep pace with its rapid growth. Madverse added around 100,000 users over the past 18 months for a total of 200,000 independent artist and label clients across more than 40 countries.

“The idea was to keep up with scale,” Jain tells Billboard. “AI is always an enabler to unlock creativity and speed up workflows. While it creates the heat of competition for established artists, that’s why marketing has become more critical and must evolve.”

Madverse has used AI to accelerate its quality control processes, allowing it to distribute roughly 25,000 songs within three to five minutes from when they’ve been uploaded to the site, Jain says. It also offers customer-facing AI tools that manage components of marketing campaigns like ads across Meta, pre-save, sale and concert notifications, he says.

The investment, which also included capital from U.S.-based SumoSan Ventures, 10X Global in India and Dubai-based Marigold Capital, will help Madverse further develop its technology, rights management, distribution and artist services, the company says.

Music discovery and consumption in India has long been driven by Bollywood and regional film scores, which propelled the careers of artists like Anirudh Ravichander, Badshah and Aastha Gill to score hits on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts.

Jain says Madverse was founded to address the lack of tools and services available to India’s burgeoning independent music scene. A growing number of Bollywood playback singers — the vocal artists who record the hits actors perform on screen — have launched independent careers, with popular playback singers, including Neeti Mohan, using Madverse to distribute their music. Other popular music artists on the platform include twin sisters Sukriti and Prakriti Kakkar, Nucleya, Rishabh Rikhiram, Karan Kanchan and Arpit Bala.

Ahdritz, known also for developing AWAL and amra during his 20 years as CEO of Kobalt, will join Madverse’s board. In recent years, Ahdritz has invested in music start-ups that use AI to scale the indie music industry through new distribution and fan engagement technologies — including Fever, Even, Soundtrack, un:hurd music and creator engagement platforms Telly, Sweet, SCOR and Airspot.

“Madverse was born with one purpose: to build the most powerful, most accessible independent music ecosystem in the world, starting from India,” Jain said in a statement. “Willard joining this journey is a defining moment… and a statement to the entire industry. He fundamentally changed what independence in music could mean for an artist. The next independent wave will be led from India — and Madverse will be at the center of it.”

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