Pre-Seed Investment Opportunity

Talent is
everywhere.
Discovery isn't.

India's entertainment industry casts on WhatsApp. We're building the professional infrastructure that should have existed a decade ago.

₹767 Cr
Projected revenue by FY30
11 Lakh+
Target registered users by FY30
Live
Web + Android, pre-revenue

Platform is live. We're raising to grow.

01 — The Problem

Talent hiring in entertainment
runs on WhatsApp

It doesn't matter if you're casting for a Bollywood blockbuster, an OTT series, or a live event in Hyderabad. The process is the same chaos everywhere.

There's no real talent database
A casting coordinator sends a WhatsApp message with an Instagram link and two lines of bio. That is the state of talent discovery in a multi-thousand crore industry. Production houses work with a handful of the same profiles — not because the talent doesn't exist, but because there's no way to find it.
Nobody knows who to trust
Is this casting coordinator genuine? Will this artiste show up on time? There are no ratings, no reviews, no accountability anywhere in the chain. Every engagement is a leap of faith, and it goes wrong far too often.
Artistes are underpaid and strung along
A production house pays ₹1 lakh. The artiste sees ₹10,000 — weeks after the shoot. Nobody questions it because there's no transparency and no alternative. The middleman takes the cut and there's no paper trail.
If you're not in a metro, you don't exist
Extraordinary singers in Bihar. Brilliant actors in Andhra. Performers in Kerala who never got a shot simply because they couldn't afford to pack up and move to Mumbai. Geography has been a ceiling for long enough.
02 — The Solution

Describe what you need.
Find them instantly.

Artiluma is a prompt-based talent discovery marketplace. Type — or speak — what you're looking for, and get a curated, filtered list from across India. No agencies. No middlemen. No inflated commissions.

How it works
A casting director types a detailed requirement — physical attributes, languages, location, availability, budget. Artiluma surfaces the right artistes instantly from a verified, growing database. A wedding planner in Bihar searches for a sufi singer available on a specific date. A production house builds its entire ensemble cast in an afternoon. The right talent, found the right way, with complete transparency.
Complete artiste profiles
Portfolio, showreel, languages, physical details, availability, past work — not just an Instagram link
Two-sided trust ratings
Rate artistes. Rate talent seekers. See who shows up professionally before you commit to anything.
Direct, on-platform contact
Negotiate, agree on payment terms, and communicate — entirely within Artiluma. No more back channels.
03 — Real stories

Who Artiluma is
actually built for

These aren't hypothetical users. They exist right now — with no good option. Until Artiluma.

Casting Director, Mumbai
A director needs a very specific actor — across all of India
A film requires an actor who is around 6 feet 1 inch tall, has a well-grown beard, brown eyes, speaks both Haryanvi and Telugu fluently, is currently based in Gurugram, and is free for a one-week shoot in September. Before Artiluma, this search took weeks of phone calls, forwarded contacts, and endless guesswork.
"Looking for a male actor, 6'1", full beard, brown eyes, fluent in Haryanvi and Telugu, based in Gurugram, available for a 1-week shoot in September."
Filtered results in seconds. Checks ratings. Reaches out directly. Done in a day.
Rahul, Darbhanga, Bihar
His brother's wedding needs a sufi singer — and he has no industry contacts
Rahul isn't from the entertainment world. He just wants someone real, experienced, and within his budget to make his brother's wedding night unforgettable. He has no idea where to even look. An agency would quote him something unreasonable. A random Google search gives him nothing useful.
"Looking for a sufi singer who can come to Darbhanga on 7th July. Should have experience of at least 2–3 events. Budget is ₹50,000."
Sees profiles with verified event history, audio samples, and real reviews. Books confidently in 10 minutes.
OTT Production House
Casting a Tamil web series — 8 distinct characters, tight timeline
A production team needs 8 different character profiles for a regional OTT series. Different age groups, distinct looks, specific dialects, varied experience levels. Their casting coordinator used to manage this through WhatsApp chains that stretched across two weeks. On Artiluma, they set filters, shortlist from thousands of verified profiles, and schedule auditions — all in one afternoon from one screen.
Casting completed in hours, not weeks. Transparent profiles. Direct communication.
Shop Owner, Ludhiana, Punjab
A furniture shop owner wants his business promoted — without paying agency commissions on top of influencer fees
He wants a content creator to visit his shop, make a lifestyle video, and put it in front of real local audiences. When he calls an influencer agency, they quote him something heavy — and nobody tells him how much the influencer actually charges versus what the agency is pocketing. He has no way to know.
"Looking for an influencer in Ludhiana who makes lifestyle vlogs. Should have 1 lakh to 2.5 lakh followers on Instagram. My budget is ₹10,000 to ₹15,000."
He types this into Artiluma. In seconds, a filtered list of creators who match exactly what he described. He browses their profiles, checks their past work, and messages them directly — on the platform. No agency in the middle. No hidden markups. He knows exactly what he's paying and who he's paying.
Found the right creator. Booked directly. Paid what was agreed.
04 — Market

A massive market with
no organised solution

India's entertainment economy is scaling fast. The hiring infrastructure hasn't moved in decades.

₹25,000 Cr+
India entertainment market (TAM)
₹4,000 Cr
Talent hiring & casting (SAM)
₹800 Cr
Serviceable obtainable market
50+ OTT platforms in India — all creating unprecedented demand for fresh, diverse talent from across the country, not just the same faces from Mumbai.
The problem is global — The same broken system exists in every entertainment market. India is the proof point. The Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond are the expansion story.
Millions of artistes, no platform — Actors, singers, dancers, voice-over artists, stand-up comedians. The talent exists everywhere. Nobody has built the place to find it.
Zero organised competition — The market is entirely on WhatsApp and informal referrals. Artiluma is building the first professional standard for the entertainment hiring industry.
05 — Business Model

Subscriptions today.
Booking commissions from FY29.

FY 2026–27 is a free onboarding year — we build the network first, monetise from year two. The talent seeker side is priced 10× higher and drives the majority of revenue.

For Artistes
Starter Spotlight
50%
Free
Rising Star
30%
₹99/mo
Pro Performer
19%
₹999/mo
Icon Tier
1%
₹9,999/mo
For Talent Seekers
Scout Basic
50%
Free
Casting Pro
30%
₹999/mo
Studio Plus
19%
₹9,999/mo
Production Elite
1%
₹99,999/mo
Phase 2: Artiste booking & escrow payments — launching FY 2028–29
Once sufficient trust is established on both sides of the platform, talent seekers will pay through Artiluma. We hold the payment and release it to the artiste after the gig is completed — earning a commission in the process. This adds a structurally high-margin revenue layer on top of subscriptions, and it solves the payment transparency problem at its root.
06 — Financial Projections

Zero to ₹767 crore
in four years

Conservative base case. Talent seeker subscriptions — priced 10× higher than artiste tiers — carry the majority of revenue from year two onward.

FY 2026–27
₹0
Focus: Free onboarding year
Building both sides of the network
FY 2027–28
₹75.73 Cr
Artistes: 1,00,000
Talent seekers: 10,000
FY 2028–29
₹268.56 Cr
Artistes: 3,50,000
Talent seekers: 35,000
FY 2029–30
₹767.34 Cr
Artistes: 10,00,000
Talent seekers: 1,00,000
What drives the numbers: The talent seeker side is priced 10× higher than artiste tiers at every level. Studio Plus (₹9,999/mo) and Production Elite (₹99,999/mo) — even at 19% and 1% conversion — account for the bulk of revenue. At 10 lakh artistes in FY30, just 10,000 Icon Tier subscribers contribute ₹99.9 crore alone. Booking commissions from FY29 onward add a further high-margin layer that these projections don't fully capture yet.
07 — Traction & The Ask

Built, launched,
ready to scale

We're pre-revenue, not pre-product. The platform is live. We need fuel to grow — not to figure out what to build.

What's already done
  • Web platform fully live and functional
  • Android app available on Play Store
  • Prompt-based talent search built and working
  • Two-sided marketplace architecture complete
  • Ratings and review system live
  • Field research — personally met casting coordinators and artistes to validate the problem
What this funding unlocks
  • Performance marketing to onboard artistes at scale
  • Industry partnerships and entertainment media PR
  • iOS app development and launch
  • Booking and escrow payment infrastructure
  • Expansion to Gulf and Southeast Asia markets
  • Team expansion — tech, growth, and BD
Pre-Seed Ask
₹2–5 Cr
Equity · Open to discussion
Use of funds
Marketing & artiste acquisition
50%
Product & tech
25%
Partnerships & BD
15%
Operations
10%
08 — Why Artiluma wins

Built by someone who
lived the problem

This wasn't built in a boardroom. It came from personally sitting with casting coordinators, talking to artistes, and watching firsthand how broken the system is.

"A delivery boy in Kerala with a voice that could move you to tears shouldn't need to move to Mumbai to get a chance. At ₹99 a month — less than an auto fare — Artiluma gives him a stage that reaches the whole world."
— Shivaji Kumar, Founder, Artiluma
01
First mover advantage
No organised competitor exists in this space. The market is entirely on WhatsApp. Whoever builds the professional standard first, owns the market long-term.
02
Network effects moat
More artistes attract more talent seekers. More seekers attract more artistes. Every new registration makes the entire platform more valuable for everyone already on it.
03
India first, global next
The same broken system exists in every entertainment market. India is the proof of concept. The Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond are the expansion story that follows.
Let's talk

The next great talent
could be anywhere.

Help us build the platform that gives every artiste — from every town, in every language — a fair shot at being discovered.

Shivaji Kumar
Founder · Artiluma
artiluma.com
Send us a message →