Key Takeaways
- $10 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures brings Hook’s total funding to $16 million, with participation from Point72 Ventures, Imaginary Ventures, and Waverley Capital (co-founded by ex-Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr.).
- Hook’s active user base has grown 45-fold over the past 12 months, and artist campaigns on the platform have generated over 250 million views across social media.
- The platform provides access to 20 million+ licensed songs through partnerships with Universal Music Group, Downtown Music/FUGA, Too Lost, Primary Wave, and Avex.
- Funds will be deployed to launch an Android app, build new community features, and develop native video and recording capabilities.
Quick Recap
Hook, the AI-powered music remixing and social sharing startup founded by former JioSaavn COO Gaurav Sharma, has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley heavyweight Khosla Ventures. The announcement, made on February 18, 2026, signals a major vote of confidence in the emerging “licensed remix” category.
Existing investors Point72 Ventures, Imaginary Ventures, and Waverley Capital doubled down, while music-industry backers Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew, Three Six Zero, The Raine Group, Avex, and DJ KSHMR also participated.
Why Khosla Bet $10M on Licensed Remixes?
The round brings Hook’s cumulative funding to $16 million following a $3.5 million seed in 2024 and a $3 million extension in March 2025. Khosla Ventures’ Founding Partner Samir Kaul called Hook’s licensing and attribution infrastructure something “the ecosystem can rely on,” highlighting the startup’s unique approach to a notoriously messy rights problem.
Hook’s core product lets users remix fully licensed tracks using AI-powered tools – adjusting genre, mood, and structure – then share those remixes to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and SoundCloud with one tap. Crucially, original artists and rights holders retain ownership and participate in the monetization, a model that has attracted direct campaigns with artists including The Weeknd, Joji, Metro Boomin, Lil Wayne, and Empire of the Sun.
With an estimated 40% of music consumed on social media coming from unlicensed remixes and mashups, Hook positions itself as the infrastructure layer that finally legalizes this massive gray-market behavior. Since its iOS launch in September 2024, the platform has secured licensing pipelines covering over 20 million songs through deals with Downtown Music/FUGA, Too Lost, Primary Wave, and Avex, on top of a flagship partnership with Universal Music Group.
The AI Music Gold Rush
Venture investment into AI music platforms has accelerated sharply, reflecting strong investor conviction in generative and creator driven audio technologies. Suno raised $250 million at a $2.45 billion valuation in November 2025, while ElevenLabs secured $500 million at an $11 billion valuation in February 2026 following the launch of its Eleven Music product. Earlier stage activity has also been notable, with Udio raising $10 million at seed stage in 2024.
Hook differentiates itself through its licensing first model. Whereas Suno, Udio, and ElevenLabs focus on generating entirely new songs from user prompts, Hook operates as a licensed remix and social distribution platform, enabling users to create derivative works from fully cleared tracks. This structural distinction has material implications for rights holders.
Regulatory and industry dynamics further support Hook’s positioning. Major labels have taken a firm stance against AI systems trained on copyrighted catalogs without authorization, while signaling support for platforms operating within established licensing frameworks. Hook’s inclusion in Universal Music Group’s MusicForAI initiative, which recognizes ethically compliant AI platforms, strengthens its strategic defensibility.
Competitive Landscape
The AI music startup ecosystem is crowded, but Hook occupies a distinct niche. The two most relevant emerging competitors are Splash (AI-powered music creation within gaming/social contexts) and mayk.it (mobile-first social music studio). A comparison against larger generative platforms like Suno is included for context, though they operate in an adjacent rather than directly overlapping category.
| Feature / Metric | Hook | Splash | mayk.it |
| Founded | 2023 | 2017 | 2020 |
| Total Funding | $16M | ~$30.6M | ~$4M |
| Lead Investor(s) | Khosla Ventures | Amazon Alexa Fund / BITKRAFT | Greycroft |
| Core Product | Licensed AI remix + social sharing | AI music creation in gaming (Roblox) | Mobile virtual music studio |
| Licensed Music Library | 20M+ songs | Proprietary AI-generated loops | User-generated beats |
| Rights-Holder Model | Full licensing, artist retains ownership | AI-generated (no licensing needed) | User-owned creations |
| Social Distribution | TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, SoundCloud | In-game sharing (Roblox) | In-app + social export |
| Key Differentiator | Only scaled platform for licensed fan remixes | Gaming-first music creation | Accessible, phone-based production |
Techno Trenz’s Takeaway
I think this is a big deal – not because $10 million is a massive number by today’s AI fundraising standards, but because of who is writing the check and why. In my experience covering music-tech funding, having Khosla Ventures lead your Series A while Universal Music Group is actively suing your closest AI competitors tells you everything about where the smart money sees the puck going.
Hook is playing a fundamentally different game than Suno or Udio. Those companies are betting they can generate music from scratch and settle the copyright questions later. Hook is betting that the real opportunity is turning the 40% of social media music consumption that already exists as unlicensed remixes into a legal, monetizable ecosystem.
