Christopher BarrettEthical secondary ticketing resale operation TicketSwap said it has raised $10m (£7m) to accelerate growth and expand into new markets.
Since it was launched in 2012, the Amsterdam-based company has partnered with more than 6,000 international events, including Holland’s DGTL (cap. 20,000), Sziget (90,000) in Hungary, France’s Hellfest (60,000) and UK events including Field Day (50,000).
The service, which has been used by more than 5 million fans, enables tickets to be re-sold for a maximum of 20% above the original price, with the seller’s identity being verified.
The multi-million dollar funding has been injected by Dutch investment firm Million Monkeys.
TicketSwap founder and CEO Hans Ober said that after more than a year of lockdowns and anti-Covid measures, TicketSwap is seeing a surge in interest in the platform: “Instead of having to take a step back due to Covid, we can now accelerate our growth. We are expanding to new markets and improving the quality of our service.”
TicketSwap is working on new ways to handle the re-sale of highly sought-after tickets, including trialling a raffle technology that would allow more people to have a chance to enter and an increased chance to get a ticket.
“We want TicketSwap to become more than a marketplace for tickets”, says Ober. “It will be a part of the anticipation for an event or day trip. TicketSwap will develop into an app that people like to use regularly to discover new artists and shows, not just when they are looking to buy tickets.”