New York based ticketing platform company SeatGeek has announced the acquisition of Israeli ticketing software company TopTix for $56 million. The acquisition by SeatGeek was financed by a new $57 million Series D investment round in SeatGeek led by Glynn Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Causeway Media Partners, Haystack Partners, Mousse Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures.
Established in 2000 by Yehuda Yuval and Eli Dagan, TopTix developed the SRO ticketing system, which currently serves 500 clients in 16 countries, processing 80 million tickets annually. Current TopTix clients, which will now be clients of SeatGeek, range from museums and theaters to festivals and sports teams, including well-known organizations such as the Royal Dutch Football Association, Ravinia Festival, and many English soccer clubs.
TopTix will power the expansion of SeatGeek Open, SeatGeek’s primary ticketing platform that launched in August of 2016. SeatGeek Open enables artists and teams to sell tickets directly within other apps and websites, in places where fans are spending time and consuming content. This is a radically different approach from that of industry rivals, which limit the distribution of tickets. Tickets, for example, could be made available through popular ecommerce websites, travel tools, and messaging sites. Artists and teams, through this massively increased distribution, are able to reach more fans and sell more tickets.
TopTix has served as SeatGeek’s technology partner for the company’s first primary ticketing client, Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer. The early results of SeatGeek Open are promising: the technology has helped Sporting KC increase online sales by 61 percent thus far compared to last season, and drive four times the amount of mobile purchasing the team saw with their previous ticket provider throughout 2016. "TopTix has by far the best backend primary ticketing technology in the world, and we humbly believe that at SeatGeek we have created what is easily the best user experience," said SeatGeek co-founder Jack Groetzinger. "Combining these two platforms together allows SeatGeek to deliver the most powerful - and only open - ticketing platform in the industry. We’re thrilled to be working with the team from TopTix to continue to build our open ecosystem that is transforming the way people access live events."
Eli Dagan, who will continue to lead the core engineering team in Israel, said, "Our teams share a passion for innovation and a mission to build long-term partnerships. I’m thrilled that together we will continue to build a product tailored to the needs of all our clients around the world."
TopTix will operate as a subsidiary of SeatGeek, continuing to service clients across the globe.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 19, 2017
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