Music manager and show producer Ashanti Abdullah is raising new funding to improve operational efficiencies in the entertainment sector.
Abdullah comes from a musical family. His grandfather was a singer and musician. His uncle was in a rap group. At age 5, Abdullah was watching his uncle practice, and by his 10th birthday, he had his own DJ setup and was playing for the neighborhood. In his 20s, he played more frequently and eventually worked with a touring act.
He later decided to start managing other artists.
“You realize you’re not as good at it as other people … I fired myself as the DJ and hired myself as manager, and then continued working with additional acts, and then it just kind of took off from there,” he told AFROTECH™ in an interview.
Soundset Music Festival and Rhymesayers Entertainment also expressed interest in working with him more regularly. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as partnerships director and press manager for Soundset, and as sales and marketing manager, then artist manager and publicist for Rhymesayers Entertainment.
In 2020, an artist he managed at Rhymesayers Entertainment left the label. Abdullah began working directly with the artist and later expanded to more acts through his own company, San Francisco Supply, an independent artist management and live production company. The company currently manages five artists and is supported by two of his partners.
Ternwheel
The artists have also been among the earliest testers of Abdullah’s Ternwheel, a financial technology platform with a website and mobile app that brings schedules, travel, team coordination, budgets, settlements, and banking into one place.
For the latter, users can link an existing payment card or bank account to automatically import transactions. Ternwheel users can also share branded digital or physical cards with people on the tour who need to spend money. In both cases, Ternwheel automatically and instantly tracks profits and losses.
People can be paid directly through a Ternwheel bank account, and expenses can be settled quickly.
“You might take five minutes, two minutes to look it over and then just hit the settle button. Then those settlements go into a system on your side where you can look and dig through your settlements, do year-end settlements by artist or by tour you’re on, or whatever you want to do if you want to send those out to your accountant,” Abdullah explained.
The goal at the start was to set a new standard for how artists, managers, and venues operate by making touring more “accessible, efficient, and profitable,” he told AFROTECH™.
“We know that artists lose $1.16 billion a year, and if they call them operational inefficiencies, I think some of that is true … staying at the wrong hotels, driving, a lot of those things. I think a lot of it’s just like there’s a lot of hands in the jar. So when you can see all those hands, then you can make some better decisions,” he said.
Abdullah said the vision is to expand into the broader entertainment industry. The system is already being used by the Harlem Globetrotters, Gorillaz, and Cirque du Soleil, to name a few. As it grows further, it’s targeting sports, movies, and travel. He said the company is running a three-week travel-focused pilot as well.
“If the pilot goes good, then we’ll launch it to everybody. Right now, the different connections are just regular agents. Agents can go in and set up routing for teams. This will be the similiar thing. It’d be your travel agent that can also go in and set up routing for your hotels and your flights,” he detailed.
Abdullah says Ternwheel has received support and funding from a16z’s Talent x Opportunity (TxO) program to learn about operations and scaling a company. He participated in its Fall 2025 cohort. After the program ended, the venture now receives support through a16z’s Speedrun program, which does not include funding.
He also credited a16z with connecting him with Stella Liao, Ternwheel’s chief technology officer.
“She was a great add,” he expressed.
Seed Round
Ternwheel has now closed a $2 million seed round, backed by institutional investors and angels. One investor is Bob Gardner, an early supporter who initially invested $250,000 at inception and now serves as an advisor.
The funding will support development of the company’s next feature: a marketplace for hiring vetted professionals. For example, if a guitar technician drops out mid-tour, users can quickly find a replacement from a pool of vetted professionals with a Ternwheel profile.
Separately, Abdullah also said Ternwheel is working on a festival product that will “create the opposite of what we have now for festivals.”
“All of this is really a chaotic business that we’re trying to streamline into one focused way,” Abdullah explained.
Ternwheel is supported by an advisory board that features Tunji Balogun, former CEO, Def Jam Recordings; Rakaa Iriscience, MC, Dilated Peoples; Sway Calloway, journalist, “Sway In The Morning”; and Gardner, CEO, Gardner Builders.
Abdullah hopes to see Ternwheel land a partnership with Formula 1, calling it his “biggest win” personally.
