Live entertainment startup Muso raises $2 million in funding

Live entertainment startup Muso has raised $2 million in a seed-plus round, with the capital to be used towards increasing the business' scale.

The funding was led by Rampersand, Athena Home Loans Co-Founder Michael Starkey, Alberts Impact Capital, Flying Fox VC and Sandhill Road.

Following the easing of restrictions across the country, Australia’s live entertainment industry is considering new methods of operating and improving efficiency, a Muso spokesperson said.

Founded in 2018 by Jeremiah Siemianow, Brandon Crimmins and Alan Jin, Muso began as an online marketplace for emerging musicians to find live gigs and to help venues recruit new talent.

Since its launch, Muso has coordinated over 10,000 shows and has seen a 10-fold customer base growth over the past 12 months.

“Logistics are typically the main roadblocks in bringing live entertainment to life. Finding talent, let alone coordinating gigs, payments and schedules is immensely time consuming,” said Muso co-founder and CEO Jeremiah Siemianow.

“We created Muso so that entertainment could be managed in a similar way to the financial, marketing, and other core operations of hospitality businesses. By easing the process, we’re essentially enabling venues to create more events – which is a win for the establishments themselves, but also patrons and artists.”

The company aimed to support its recent growth through the hiring of Simon Raik-Allen as chief technology officer, Aaron Moodie and principal product designer, Kelly Burge as customer success manager and Misha Moroshko as principal front end engineer.

Muso also recently secured several grants to host a nationwide tour called “The Rise of the Pub Gig”, featuring 500 shows across 100 locations in Australia, aiming to assist venues and musicians in reinvigorating live music in Australia post-pandemic.

“Local live music is core to the success and continued growth of Australia’s entertainment economy. We’re especially thrilled to be helping Australia’s local music scene find its feet again post-COVID,” said Siemianow.