GRAI, an AI (artificial intelligence) music startup based in Warsaw, has acquired social streaming platform Hangout, the company said today. The deal follows a patent licensing agreement with Universal Music and adds social listening technology ahead of GRAI’s platform launch.
Deal details
The acquisition has closed, and Hangout’s technology will be integrated into GRAI, according to the buyer. GRAI was founded last year by former Vochi team members, is launching soon, and has a waitlist in place.
- The buyer’s release did not provide specific details on how Hangout will be integrated.
- GRAI raised a $9 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures in April.
- About one month ago, GRAI licensed roughly two dozen AI patents from Universal Music.
- Additional deals are under consideration, the company indicated.
Executive statements
Hangout founder Joseph Perla said on LinkedIn that GRAI has “the perfect team to really take this to the Gen Alpha generations that have never experienced anything like records.”
“I built Hangout to fix what’s broken in online spaces. We wanted to recreate that feeling of sitting on a bedroom floor passing around records, turning music back into a collective experience. Integrating our work into GRAI is how we keep that core belief in human connection moving forward.”
Andrei Avsievich, GRAI co-founder and president, said the future of streaming is social and co-creative.
“I grew up backstage at an opera house where my grandfather sang, so music has always meant people to me. Joseph and his team built a product that showed how deeply people want to gather around music and do more with it than press play. We see it exactly the same way. The future of streaming is social and co-creative. It just needed two things: the demand and the technology. With today’s AI, it now has both.”
Avsievich is also founder of Bulba Ventures.
Social music deal activity
Near the start of 2026, social music platform Hook, which also uses AI and is backed by Khosla Ventures, announced a $10 million Series A. In August, Hook secured a licensing deal with Universal Music.
Earlier, Stationhead, a social listening platform focused on superfans, merged with Mellomanic and added Universal Music as an investor.
