Seaya Ventures completes its third exit since it started operations in 2013
Madrid, 20 APRIL 2018: Seaya Ventures announced yesterday the sale of 100% of portfolio company Ticketea to Eventbrite, the world’s largest ticketing and event technology platform which powers millions of events around the globe each year. Ticketea, founded by Javier Andrés, is financially backed by Seaya Ventures, its major shareholder.
For Seaya this results in its fifth exit (3 full exits and 2 partial ones) for its 2013 vintage fund which was recently ranked by Preqin as the top European VC fund since 2003.
As a market leader for festivals in Spain, Ticketea will further extend Eventbrite’s global footprint in music, bringing premier festivals such as Arenal Sound, Viña Rock, Low Festival, and Dreambeach to Eventbrite’s roster of iconic music customers around the world, including Newport Folk Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival, Vrienden van Amstel Live, Tomorrowland Spain, Sonus Festival, BigCityBeats, and Rainbow Serpent. Through its robust ecosystem of third-party integrations, Ticketea also helps sell tickets for prominent entertainment brands and events, including The Billy Elliott Musical, Cirque du Soleil and Museo Nacional del Prado.
“Ticketea’s innovative approach to solving challenges for both event creators and seekers, including a robust discovery platform, has helped them achieve impressive brand equity and a strong leadership position in not only Spain, but the broader southern European market,” said Julia Hartz, CEO and co-founder of Eventbrite. “There is incredible synergy between our two companies from a business, platform, and brand perspective. We’re thrilled to welcome their talented team, who shares our core mission of bringing people together through live experiences, to the Eventbrite family.”
Javier Andres, co-founder and CEO of Ticketea, who will join Eventbrite as Country Director of Spain and Portugal, said: “We have been building a significant market presence in Spain for nearly a decade and it’s exciting to be recognized by the global leader in event technology as they invest more heavily in our growing market. Joining forces brings tremendous value to our customers, who will now benefit from Eventbrite’s proven track record of innovation, global team, and deep resources. We look forward to extending the impact of both our team and technology far beyond country borders to the more than 180 countries and territories where their powerful platform gives rise to millions of events today.”
About Eventbrite
Eventbrite is the world’s largest ticketing and event technology platform. The company, which has processed $10 billion in gross ticket sales since inception, powered millions of events in 180 countries and territories in 2017. The Eventbrite platform enabled hundreds of thousands of event creators to bring a variety of live experiences to life for more than 50 million people in 2017 – with cost effective, impactful tools, technology, and services. Eventbrite has acquired eight companies, including music ticketing powerhouses, Ticketfly and Ticketscript, to further solidify a fierce commitment to the independent live music scene. Customers include Tribeca Film Festival, Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, Pitchfork Music Festival, and Wanderlust, in addition to top venues and promoters that include Bowery Ballroom, the Brooklyn Bowl, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and The Troubadour. Eventbrite was founded in 2006 by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.
About Ticketea
Ticketea is a Spanish event technology platform. Founded in 2010, it has simplified the event management and ticket sale process for thousands of creators and processed tens of millions of tickets in more than 150 different countries and territories. With a significant presence in the concerts, festivals and theater sectors, Ticketea became one of the most visited entertainment and cultural website in Spain in 2017, helping millions of people discover the best events around them.
About Seaya Ventures
SEAYA VENTURES is a Spanish venture fund, founded in Madrid in 2013, that invests in early and growth stage Internet and technology-enabled businesses in Spain and Latin America. With more than €150M assets under management, Seaya transforms early and growth stage companies into category leaders at every level, helping them with their international expansion and creating lasting value. Seaya Ventures has invested in 17 companies so far: Ticketea, Restaurantes.com, Relevant Traffic, SinDelantal Mexico, Cabify, Comparaguru, Clintu, Percentil, Bewe, Pippa&Jean, Spotahome, Hundredrooms, Glovo, Clicars, Coverfy and The Hotels Network.
