AI-native live entertainment discovery and ticketing platform thumpN has raised over $3.75 million in pre-seed funding from a group of prominent music artists and business leaders as it looks to expand its platform across India.
The funding round includes investments from music icons Arijit Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Badshah, along with Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm CFO Madhur Deora, Capitalmind Co-founder Shray Chandra, and Hyperlink Brand Solutions Founder VG Jairam.
Built by a team with more than two decades of experience in India’s live entertainment industry, thumpN is designed as an AI-native discovery and ticketing platform that helps fans discover live experiences aligned with their interests, preferences, and moods. The platform covers concerts, comedy, nightlife, sports, festivals, and emerging regional events through a single interface.
India hosts more than 40,000 live events annually across 319 cities, creating an increasingly fragmented discovery landscape where fans rely on social media feeds, algorithms, group chats, and word of mouth to find events. According to the company, as the live entertainment market expands beyond metropolitan cities and consumers increasingly adopt conversational and personalised digital experiences, the industry is ready for a new approach to event discovery.
At the centre of the platform is Shadow, thumpN’s conversational AI agent that enables users to discover live experiences through natural conversation rather than traditional keyword-based search. Shadow is designed to understand user intent, maintain conversational context, and reason across events sourced from multiple providers.
Supporting the AI agent is a network of contributing curators, including artists, promoters, venue insiders, and genre specialists embedded across different cities. Their on-the-ground insights continuously refine Shadow’s recommendations, combining AI capabilities with human cultural understanding to deliver increasingly personalised recommendations with every interaction.
“This started from a simple frustration. Discovery today is fragmented across social feeds, algorithms, WhatsApp groups, and word of mouth. The explosion of India’s live entertainment market, combined with the shift toward conversational and AI-native consumer behaviour, has created an opportunity to rethink discovery from the ground up. We’re building thumpN to feel natural. Fans can ask Shadow for anything from ‘a stand-up show this weekend under ₹1,500’ to ‘something fun for the family on Sunday,’ and the platform understands context, intent, and taste. At the same time, organisers get better infrastructure to grow and strengthen their position. thumpN only succeeds if the ecosystem does,” said Varun Khare, CEO of thumpN.
The company said its conversational interface is the result of a deliberate product design approach focused on building an AI-native experience rather than adding AI capabilities to conventional search functions.
“Most ticketing platforms layer AI on top of a search bar. We rebuilt the experience to be AI Native. Shadow maintains context, reasons across live experiences throughout and learns your taste over time. The result isn’t a smarter search box, it’s a fundamentally different way to discover live entertainment,” said Shreyas Srinivasan, Director & Strategic Advisor, thumpN.
As users continue interacting with Shadow, the platform refines its recommendations based on changing preferences, habits, and event attendance patterns. The company also said it offers AI-native onboarding and partner-first infrastructure for organisers, artists, venues, and promoters, providing audience insights and tools to help plan, market, and scale events.
thumpN said it has developed the platform with early support from artists, promoters, and venue operators across India’s live entertainment ecosystem. At launch, the platform features a growing pipeline of live experiences spanning music, theatre, comedy, festivals, nightlife, sports, and community-led events.
“Live entertainment has always been about connection – the right fan, the right artist, the right moment. When that connection happens, you get something far more valuable than a ticket sale. You get loyalty, belonging, advocacy. The platforms that help build those relationships, not just sell access to them, will shape the next chapter of India’s live entertainment ecosystem,” said Alaap Gosher, Strategic Advisor, thumpN.
The company said thumpN has launched as a pan-India platform designed to serve both fans and event organisers across metropolitan markets as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where demand for live entertainment continues to grow.
The platform is now live at thumpn.com.
