Warner Music Group Opens Tech Hub in Bengaluru, Led by Former Walmart Engineer Mahesh Rao
Warner Music Group will open a technology hub in Bengaluru in September, expanding its Global Tech division into one of India's largest tech talent markets.
The company announced the move on Tuesday, August 18. The Bengaluru facility will work across music distribution and data infrastructure, covering everything from core data pipelines — the systems that move and process information at scale — to audience and marketing data products that help the label understand who is listening and where Music Business Worldwide.
Mahesh Rao will lead the hub as Director of Software Engineering and Site Lead for India. His remit covers engineering strategy, organisational design, budget and the operating model. Before joining Warner, Rao worked at Walmart Global Tech India, where he led software development. He reports to Chief Technology Officer Leho Nigul, who is based in Toronto and was promoted to the CTO role in late 2025, succeeding President of Technology Ariel Bardin Music Business Worldwide.
Recruitment is already underway across multiple technology disciplines, according to the company. The Bengaluru site builds on work done by Warner's India team over the past year and will also encompass artificial intelligence initiatives, with Rao leading engineering and AI expansion as the company strengthens its technology capabilities in the country MediaNews4U.
The hub arrives during a busy stretch of technology investment for Warner. In April, the company agreed to acquire Revelator, a business-to-business platform that handles digital distribution, rights management, royalty accounting and real-time analytics. That deal has closed, and the technology is being integrated into ADA — Warner's independent distribution and services division, which helps labels and artists get their music onto streaming platforms without a major-label contract. In June, Warner acquired Sureel AI, a startup whose technology traces how AI models use artists' work during training and generation, giving rights holders a way to see when and how their material is being used Music Business Worldwide.
Warner's tech team also built WMG Pulse, an app launched in beta in May 2025 that pulls streaming, audience and earnings data into a single view for artists, songwriters and their teams. In November 2025, the company struck licensing deals with AI music companies Suno, Udio and KLAY Vision, settling its copyright litigation against Suno and Udio in the process Music Business Worldwide.
The Bengaluru expansion sits alongside broader corporate activity at Warner this summer. Tom Corson was promoted to Chief Operating Officer on July 31, 2026, the same day the company announced a finance leadership transition involving CFO and COO Armin Zerza. On July 9, Warner Music India said it was scaling up its artist services and expanded rights division. Earlier in July, ADA named Howard Corner to the newly created role of Head of ADA, EMEA Warner Music Group.
For a company that earns from recorded music, publishing and distribution across three major divisions, building engineering capacity in Bengaluru is a bet that the next competitive advantage in music is as much about data infrastructure as it is about the catalogue itself.
