Hive Raises $27 Million
Hive, a marketing platform built for live events, has raised a $27 million Series B from Frontier Growth.
The platform connects purchase data with email, SMS, advertising and CRM tools through 40+ ticketing integrations, including Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventim, Etix, Tixr and DICE. Hive says it has helped generate more than $1 billion in ticket sales.
The investment will support global expansion, deepen ticketing, data and advertising integrations, and add new AI-powered assistants.
Ticketmaster Doubles Down On AI
Ticketmaster is doubling down on AI with an acquisition and three new tech executives just as a new data breach has been reported at its Brazil subsidiary.
AI startup Ragie.ai was acquired for an undisclosed sum to help strengthen its AI infrastructure and accelerate the development. Ragie bills itself as a context engine for agents, assistants and apps.
Jim Freeman, new Chief Technology Officer: Former Amazon VP who helped launch Prime Video and later led engineering and product at Zalando will oversee TM’s global engineering, platform modernization, AI transformation and resilience.
Rachel Smith, first SVP of Data Science & Machine Learning: Former Block exec will establish Ticketmaster’s first dedicated data science and machine learning organization, advancing capabilities across fraud detection, bot mitigation and helping to improve the fan experience.
Chuck Mortimore, new Senior Vice President of Product: Ex-Disney, Stripe, Visa and Salesforce exec will lead Ticketmaster’s product strategy for identity, access and trust, helping fans securely access and manage their accounts and tickets while strengthening protections against unauthorized access.
DOJ, FTC sues reseller REPS & Co, NITO applauds
A new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) court filing against ticket reseller REPS & Co alleges violations of the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.
According to the suit, REPS & Co violated federal laws to resell tickets for more than $120 million in profit by opening thousands of accounts on ticketing platforms including Ticketmaster and AXS to circumvent platforms purchase limits.
The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) issued this statement in support of the action:
“NITO applauds the FTC and DOJ their suit against REPS & Co and will support their continued efforts to enforce BOTS Act violators," Nathaniel Marro, NITO Executive Director. This case brings to light what we’ve been telling lawmakers across the country. Resellers are not individuals whose plans changed, but financially backed enterprises putting billions of dollars behind an army of bots to get the best seats. This shows exactly why we need resale caps to squeeze out bad actors and return the system to some form of sanity.”
Music Tourism Is Becoming a Growth Lever
The live music industry’s growth story right now isn’t really about any single festival, tour, or market. It’s about promoters explicitly engineering new audiences and geographies rather than competing harder for the ones they already have — and the pattern is showing up on four continents at once. Here's the full story.
Live Nation Filing Calls FTC Suit "Perversion" of Bots Act
Live Nation and Ticketmaster this week filed a fiery answer to the high-stakes lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states.
The live entertainment giant contends that federal regulators are misapplying the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS) by attempting to penalize the very platform the statute was designed to protect. [More]
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