Ticketfly Secures $22 Million For Expansion

Social ticketing platform Ticketfly has announced today that they’ve secured $22 million in series C investment, bringing their total investment to $37 million since their launch in 2008. This round of financing was led by SAP Ventures with participation from Northgate Capital, Cross Creek Capital, and Series B lead investor Mohr Davidow Ventures. The money is said to be going to fuel Ticketfly’s new technology development and drive expansion in existing and new markets.

This news comes on the heels of recent growth and expansion for the San Francisco-based company, including their recent launch of a reserved seating functionality, which is a major milestone for their product that effectively triples the company’s addressable market by extending its social ticketing platform to reserved seating venues across North America.

“We seek investors that provide not only financial support, but also strategic value,” said Ticketfly CEO, Andrew Dreskin. “SAP Ventures, Northgate Capital and Cross Creek Capital certainly fit that bill. These firms have significant expertise internationally, in the sports vertical and in the public markets. Their knowledge and experience will be critical as we expand our product offering and diversify our client base.”

Ticketfly continues to grow its client base, seeing 65% client growth in the first half of 2012. Some of these include The Catalyst (Santa Cruz, CA), The Echo / Echoplex and Spaceland Presents (Los Angeles), 40 Watt Club (Athens, GA), Rams Head (Baltimore), Aladdin Theater (Portland), and many more. These add to a roster of some of the country’s top promoters and venues, including the 9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Austin City Limits Live, Troubadour, Brooklyn Bowl, Monqui Presents, The Independent and R5 Productions.

“It continues to show the traction we’re getting,” Dreskin told Hypebot. “We did an analysis and found that, on average, our clients experience year-over-year sales growth that is five times the industry average, and double-digit growth rates in ticket sales when switching from a previous provider.”

Ticketfly is definitely playing the “David” role when battling the Goliath that is Ticketmaster / LiveNation. However, in order to emerge victorious, they’ll need to continue to focus on their efficient delivery, providing affordable rates for consumers, and creating marketing tools / services that allow venues to sell more tickets at lower prices. And with this latest round of investment, they could very well be on their way in doing so.

Their growth continues to impress, as The San Francisco Business Times named Ticketfly “Fastest Growing Company” in May 2012, citing revenue growth of 4,484% from 2009 to 2011.

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Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud