Valeas Capital takes majority stake in TicketManager with $110 million investment
Event-management software provider TicketManager has secured a $110 million commitment from Valeas Capital Partners, giving the growth-oriented private-equity firm a majority position in the 18-year-old company.
Co-founders Tony Knopp (chief executive) and Ken Hanscom (chief operating officer) will keep a minority stake and continue to steer day-to-day operations. The transaction is expected to close in June.
TicketManager builds tools that help corporations track and optimize every step of their sports and entertainment ticket programs, from approval workflows and guest invitations to real-time reporting on usage and compliance. The company says more than 500 global brands — including Verizon, FedEx and Mastercard — rely on its platform, which links directly with roughly 400 pro and college teams and venues worldwide.
Knopp positioned the deal as fuel for faster product development and expansion. “Live events are critical investments for businesses, yet many companies struggle to prove the value of their ticket spend,” he said. “Valeas shares our long-term vision and will help us scale the technology that shows a clear return on those investments.”
Businesses collectively spend more than $600 billion a year on client entertainment, according to the company, but TicketManager’s internal data indicates 43 percent of corporate tickets go unused and fewer than one in five organizations use specialized software to manage them. By replacing spreadsheets and email threads with its cloud platform, TicketManager contends customers eliminate thousands of hours of manual work, boost ticket utilization and provide executives with instant ROI dashboards.
Valeas co-founder and managing partner Ed Woiteshek said the firm was drawn to that data-centric approach. “Investments in customer entertainment are increasingly viewed as essential, and enterprises want measurable results,” he noted. “TicketManager already leads its category, and we believe it is ideally positioned to capture growing demand for analytics-driven event management.”
Valeas was launched in 2021 by former investment executives with experience backing high-growth companies such as DoubleClick and Deliveroo. Its TicketManager investment follows a pattern of taking majority stakes in software businesses at inflection points, providing both capital and operational guidance.
TicketManager, founded in 2007 and originally known as TicketOS, has benefited from the surge in sponsorship deals and premium seating sales across major sports leagues. Alongside corporate suites and naming-rights partners, the platform also handles smaller allocations such as season tickets, enabling companies to stay compliant with gifting rules while tracking which guests convert into revenue.
Financial terms beyond the $110 million commitment were not disclosed. The company did not say whether any existing shareholders are exiting as part of the deal.
With fresh backing, Knopp said TicketManager will accelerate product innovation, deepen integrations with ticketing and CRM providers, and expand internationally. “We created this category,” he said. “Now we intend to widen the gap.”
