Egyptian startup KNOT Technologies has secured a US$1 million pre‑seed investment, with leading early‑stage investor A15 at the helm, to accelerate the scaling of its AI‑native ticketing and access‑control infrastructure. Founded in 2025 by Ahmed Abdalla and Hussein ElBendak, KNOT is developing an advanced ticketing and identity‑verification platform designed to combat fraud, enhance real‑time demand visibility, and curb revenue losses caused by unregulated secondary markets.
The company’s vision is to fundamentally re‑architect the way identity, distribution, and value circulate within the live events industry. At the core of KNOT’s system is an AI‑driven layer that authenticates user identity, governs how tickets are distributed, and monitors demand signals instantly across the entire event ecosystem. This enables organizers to better understand audience behavior, regain control over ticket flow, and capture value that would otherwise leak into grey or black‑market resale channels.
Despite still operating in stealth, KNOT has already onboarded more than 50 enterprise clients. With the announcement of its US$1 million pre‑seed round, led by A15 and supported by other strategic partners, the company is now preparing for rapid expansion. The new capital will be directed toward product development, international market entry, and deeper integrations with event organizers, venues, and distributors.
Ahmed Abdalla, the company’s co‑founder, explained:
Ticketing has become a financial black hole, with enormous value leaking into unregulated resale channels and almost no modern tools capable of stopping it. Event organisers are left with limited visibility, fans end up paying inflated prices, and trust is eroded across the value chain. That’s why we built KNOT, to unlock real economic value and rebuild trust between businesses and their customers.
Co‑founder Hussein ElBendak highlighted the technological complexity behind the solution.
The technical challenge here is substantial, which makes it all the more exciting. Fraud evolves continuously, and staying ahead of it requires engineering for resilience, not just scale. We are building systems that learn faster than the threats they face. As we expand, this underlying technology has the potential to create value far beyond ticketing.
Investor A15 views KNOT as uniquely positioned to disrupt an industry long dominated by legacy platforms built before the mobile and AI revolution.
Karim Beshara, founder and managing partner at A15, stated:
We invested in KNOT because the team is solving a complex global problem with a truly innovative approach. Their technology has the potential to redefine how trust, identity, and value flow in the ticketing world. We believe they are exceptionally well placed to lead this transformation.
