Warner Music Group has named Mahesh Rao to lead a new technology hub the label is opening in Bengaluru, India. WMG announced the expansion of its Global Tech division on August 18, 2026, with the facility officially opening in September.
Rao, WMG's Director of Software Engineering and Site Lead for India, will oversee the label's engineering strategy in the country, along with hiring, budget and organizational design for the new hub. "We're building a world-class music tech organization right here in Bengaluru," Rao said. "The caliber of talent in this market is exceptional." He reports to Toronto-based Chief Technology Officer Leho Nigul, who was promoted to the role in late 2025, succeeding President of Technology Ariel Bardin. Before joining Warner, Rao led software development at Walmart Global Tech India.
The hub will work on music distribution and data infrastructure, covering what WMG called "core data pipelines to audience and marketing data products," with engineering work drawing on AI tools. Nigul said Bengaluru is "central to WMG's global engineering strategy," and that the company is investing in local leadership and competitive pay to attract engineers.
The Bengaluru hub is part of a broader technology push at Warner Music Group this year, following its acquisition of B2B distribution platform Revelator, now being folded into WMG's independent distribution arm ADA, and AI attribution startup Sureel, whose tools trace how AI models use artists' work and have since been offered to labels served by Symphonic Distribution. Warner also built the in-house streaming data app WMG Pulse and struck licensing deals with Suno, Udio and KLAY Vision in November 2025, settling its copyright litigation with the first two in the process.
Warner Music India launched in 2020 and has grown through acquisitions including a majority stake in South India's Divo and, more recently, the launch of Warner Chappell Music India, while rival label groups make similar moves: Universal Music India bought a stake in Bollywood studio Excel Entertainment in January, and HYBE opened a Mumbai headquarters last September. The Bengaluru hub arrives the same week Alibaba unveiled its own AI song-generation tool, HappyShrimp, a sign of how fast major labels and tech firms are both racing to build music technology infrastructure.
The facts
- Mahesh Rao, WMG's Site Lead for India, will lead the new Bengaluru hub
- The hub focuses on music distribution and data infrastructure and opens in September 2026
- Rao reports to CTO Leho Nigul, who succeeded Ariel Bardin in late 2025
- WMG has also acquired Revelator and Sureel AI and built the WMG Pulse app this year
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