This article was created in partnership with VENU.

The fan-founded, fan-owned, and artist-inspired live entertainment company has announced that global, multi-platinum recording artist Niall Horan has joined as a shareholder and strategic partner. He will serve as a founding member of the company’s advisory council alongside fellow artist and shareholder Dierks Bentley.

More from Billboard

For Horan, whose career began on the world’s biggest stages with One Direction before evolving into a celebrated solo catalog of global hits, the move represents a natural extension of his artistic philosophy. Over the past decade, he has cultivated a reputation for authenticity; an artist attuned not only to the spectacle of performance, but to the intimacy that sustains it. That perspective has also informed his entrepreneurial ventures, including co-founding his sports agency Modest! Golf Management in 2015, investing in TGL’s Boston Common Golf and Whoop via his investments company, Greenbridge Ventures, and mentoring emerging talent as a coach on The Voice USA, where his team’s artist was crowned the Season 28 winner. Across disciplines, Horan’s throughline remains consistent: build platforms that empower creators and elevate audiences.

“Music’s always been about connection. It brings people together no matter who they are or where they’re from. Joining VENU as a shareholder and advisory council member is a chance to help strengthen that bond, push the boundaries, and create something amazing for both artists and fans” says Horan. 

Bentley brings a similar artist-first lens. With more than two decades of arena tours and chart-topping success, he has experienced firsthand how venue design, sound, and atmosphere shape the emotional arc of a show. His decision to invest in VENU reflects a belief that infrastructure should serve artistry, not the other way around. Together, Horan and Bentley signal a broader shift: artists claiming a seat at the table where live music’s future is being designed.

“Dierks represents everything we’re building toward: authenticity, excellence and an unwavering commitment to the fan experience,” said J.W. Roth, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Venu Holding Corporation. 

Venu Holding Corporation (“VENU”), which went public in 2024 and now trades on the NYSE American, has been building a different kind of live entertainment company. The company approaches growth with an uncommon strategy: putting artists closer to the blueprint. With developments underway in Oklahoma and Texas and operating entertainment campuses in Colorado and Georgia, the company’s footprint is exploding, but its more notable move is structural. The disruptive company is building an advisory body designed to give artists and leaders influence over programming, architecture, and the standards that shape fan and performer experience.

The initiative signals a shift in how venues may be built in the years ahead, not simply as spaces for sound and production, but as environments shaped by artists and built for true ambiance.

At its core, the model is simple: put artists in positions of influence and let lived experience guide innovation. In Horan and Bentley, VENU has aligned itself with two performers who understand the electricity of a crowd, the vulnerability of the stage, and the responsibility of building spaces worthy of both. If the next era of live entertainment is to be defined by deeper connection and elevated experience, it will be because artists helped design it.

Best of Billboard

Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.