Ande, an AI-native network for corporate entertainment, has emerged from stealth with more than $52 million in seed and Series A funding.
The funding came from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Duration Ventures and Sierra Ventures, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures.
Ande is focused on helping companies manage corporate entertainment spending, including client dinners, team events, catering, sporting events and gifting. The company says businesses spend an estimated $325 billion each year in this category, but the booking and expense processes remain fragmented across credit cards, accounting systems and consumer apps.
“Entertainment is one of the most important things a company does. It builds culture, closes deals and deepens the relationships that matter most. Yet the infrastructure to manage it is broken on both sides of every transaction,” said Lohit Sarma, CEO and co-founder of Ande.
“Ande is the first enterprise channel between corporate buyers and the world’s best entertainment vendors. Part of the reason this is such a hard problem to solve is that venues and entertainment providers don’t have a centralized distribution system to plug into. We had to build it. We’ve spent two and half years working with venues to digitize their data, and train models and agents for these workflows that are unique to enterprises,” continued Sarma.
The company provides a single platform where employees can book entertainment while finance and legal teams maintain visibility and control over spending.
Ande uses AI-powered workflows to find venue availability, book experiences, manage approvals, handle contracts and reconcile expenses. Executive assistants, office managers, marketing teams and other employees can use the platform to coordinate events and business entertainment in one workspace.
More than 60 enterprises are already using Ande, including Cloudflare, Salesforce, McGraw Hill, Netskope, Navan, Sigma Computing, Monday.com, Workato and Semgrep. The company says customers have reported savings of 12% to 15%, with more than $400 million in annual entertainment spending flowing through its platform.
“Our programs are high stakes and high visibility, with our executive leadership team and key customers at the core of each event we host,” said Vicky Chung, Director of Corporate Events at Netskope. “My team and I trust Ande’s platform, and especially the team behind it. I have real-time visibility into what’s happening across every event, and when I need something done right, I know it will be. My team is now focused on reaching the executives that matter and scaling the program vs. worrying about the logistics.”
“Entertainment is every enterprise’s biggest expense line that is not yet well managed. For that reason, there are financial inefficiencies and a poor experience,” notes Arif Janmohamed, Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Co-Founder of Duration Ventures. “Ande is the connective tissue, the perfect handshake between corporations and venues. Lohit is an exceptional founder, and the size of the market opportunity is largely unbounded.”
Redpoint Ventures Managing Director Alex Bard notes, “Particularly when we invest in an early-stage company, our confidence has everything to do with the founder and their ambition. Lohit has both startup DNA and the enterprise experience to solve this problem. His vision for Ande is bold and ambitious.”
Ande also operates a network for entertainment and hospitality providers. The company says more than 1,600 hospitality venues are currently partners, while more than 93,000 entertainment venues are part of its broader network across more than 90 cities.
The company plans to use its funding to expand its platform and build its network connecting corporate buyers with entertainment providers.
Ande said its platform is designed to create a dedicated corporate sales channel for venues while giving businesses a more organized way to manage entertainment spending.
