KNOT Technologies has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by A15, as the company looks to scale its AI-native ticketing and access control infrastructure for live events.
KNOT is building a new foundation for how identity, distribution, and value move across the global live events ecosystem. The startup aims to replace decades-old ticketing systems that leave organisers with limited demand visibility, expose fans to fraud, and allow billions of dollars to leak into opaque secondary resale markets.
Founded by a team with prior experience at Meta, Goldman Sachs, and Mubadala, KNOT spent months conducting structured research with rights holders, venues, and operators across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. According to the company, the conclusions were consistent across regions: legacy ticketing systems offer minimal transparency, secondary markets capture untracked revenue, and fans are pushed toward unsafe resale channels.
KNOT’s solution is built around an AI layer that authenticates user identity, governs ticket distribution, and tracks demand in real time. This architecture enables event owners to restrict unauthorised transfers, reduce market leakage, and establish a direct, data-driven relationship with attendees.
Following an early rollout, KNOT has already onboarded more than 50 enterprise customers and is now emerging from stealth.
“Ticketing has become a financial black hole, with value leaking into unregulated channels and no modern tools to prevent it,” said Ahmed Abdalla, co-founder and CEO of KNOT Technologies. “Organisers lack visibility and control, and fans are paying the price. We started KNOT to unlock real economic value and rebuild trust between businesses and their customers.”
Co-founder and CTO Hussein ElBendak highlighted the technical challenge behind the platform: “Fraud is constantly evolving. Staying ahead requires systems that are engineered for resilience, not just scale—technology that can learn faster than the threats it faces. As we scale, this infrastructure has the potential to create value far beyond ticketing.”
A15, which led the round, believes KNOT is addressing a structural gap in a market dominated by incumbents built long before the mobile and AI era.
“We invested in KNOT because the team is tackling a complex global problem with a genuinely novel approach,” said Karim Beshara, founder and managing partner at A15. “Their technology has the potential to redefine trust and identity in ticketing, and we believe they are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation.”
With the fresh capital, KNOT plans to accelerate product development, expand internationally, and deepen integrations across the live events ecosystem. The company’s long-term vision is to become the core infrastructure layer for next-generation events, enabling organizers, venues, and fans to engage through more secure, seamless, and data-driven experiences.
