Cloud-based social ticketing platform Ticketfly announced yesterday that it has raised a $22 million Series C investment and will use the proceeds to continue to develop their product and services, and to expand the platform into new markets.
The announcement comes just weeks after Ticketfly launched their latest offering, Reserved Seating. The company has also recently developed a philanthropic program Ticketfly Causes and a unique Marketing Services initiative.
Since their launch in 2008, Ticketfly has raised a total of $37 million that has been used to develop their social ticketing platform. This round of financing was led by SAP ventures with participation from Northgate Capital, Cross Creek Capital, and Mohr Davidow Ventures.
“We seek investors that provide not only financial support, but also strategic value,” said Andrew Dreskin, CEO of Ticketfly in a recent press release. “[The investors’] knowledge and experience will be critical as we expand our product offering and diversify our client base. It’s a time of great disruption in the ticketing space, and we’re thrilled to have investors who share our vision — to transform the event ticketing industry.”
On July 18, Ticketfly launched their Reserved Seating offering that provides event organizers with timesaving technology for creating and managing reserved seating events. According to their blog, Ticketfly’s latest service triples the company’s addressable market since 70 percent of all advance tickets sold in North America are reserved seating events.
The integrated addition to the platform allows users to create a visual model of their venue and easily manage price levels. A Ticketfly representative told TicketNews via email that the Reserved Seating capability is quicker and more efficient than other systems — it can take several days to create a reserved seating event on Ticketmaster’s platform.
Ticketfly’s latest functionality allows organizers to save and reuse seating templates, and also offers interactive bulk editing tools. An integrated box office module lets clients manage multiple orders at once, select seats, accept multiple payment options, and deliver tickets via print, email or will call. The service was also developed with the consumer in mind and offers both “pick-a-seat” and “best available” options and encourages social sharing to increase future sales.
Ticketfly hopes that the offering will help to leverage their other services like custom websites, social and email marketing tools, integrated box office, affiliate marketing distribution, and data analytics.
Gannon Hall, senior vice president of marketing for Ticketfly, previously reported to TicketNews that when fully utilized, up to 70 percent of sales come from Ticketfly’s marketing tools. In the first half of 2012 the company’s client base grew by 65 percent and according to the company, Ticketfly clients generally experience a year-over-year growth that is five times the industry average.
Ticketfly CEO Dreskin recently told Billboard.biz that the cloud-based social ticketing platform would like to expand its services into professional sports, a market that presents unique challenges and requires a different kind of ticketing service. “These are all stops on the continuum,” said Dreskin, “and this is just another stop on the way.”
