HAT Music raises €200K to digitise music industry networking

HAT Music, an AI-driven platform that intelligently connects emerging artists with music professionals, has closed a €200,000 Pre-Seed funding round at a €2.5 million valuation.

Founded in 2025, the startup’s mission is to simplify networking in the music supply chain and make access to the industry more transparent, meritocratic, and scalable. 

The mobile platform uses an AI-based system to guide artists in selecting the right professionals, streamlining a process that is still fragmented, inefficient, and largely offline.

“Our goal is to offer artists and music professionals a digital space to find and create mutual value, and this funding round allows us to scale our vision, first in Italy, then across Europe,” says Emanuele Sanfelici, CEO and co-founder of HAT Music 

The platform is currently available on app stores and already counts over 1,000 registered users and 350 active professionals, including producers, managers, videomakers, and social media specialists.

B4i – Bocconi for Innovation, the entrepreneurial hub of Bocconi University, where HAT Music is currently incubated as part of batch XI, led the funding.

Notable investors include:

• Chiara Santoro, Strategy Advisor and former YouTube Music executive;
• Matteo Maffucci, frontman of the Italian pop duo Zero Assoluto; 
• Andrea Corelli, music executive with past roles at Universal, Sony, and Warner, now manager of Gabry Ponte and General Manager of agency GEKAI on Stage. 

Business angels also include Giulio Manzoni (CEO of GIMA SPA) and Guido Filippetti (founder and CEO, currently MSc student at King’s College London).

While the current focus is on the Italian market, the roadmap includes European expansion starting in 2026, supported by new validation metrics and a follow-up investment round.

According to Emanuele Sanfelici, over 120,000 songs are released worldwide every day. 

“But behind most of them are emerging artists struggling to build sustainable careers due to a lack of professional connections and the right tools. HAT Music aims to fill that gap.” 

The capital will be used to accelerate growth in the Italian market and support entry into the European market, enhance the product, and expand the user base. 

Lead image: HAT Music. Photo: uncredited.