Seatwave Secures $25 Million in Series C Funding

Seatwave, Europe’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange – an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events – recently announced it has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Ventures. Fidelity Ventures is joined by existing investors Atlas Venture, Mangrove Capital Partners and Adinvest.

The company was launched in 2007 by Joe Cohen, Seatwave’s Chief Executive Officer, who formerly held senior executive positions in the international businesses of Ticketmaster and Match.com, global brands owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp. The $25 million injection of funding comes as Seatwave cements its leadership position in the UK secondary ticketing market demonstrated by having over 500,000 tickets available for sale and being the most-trafficked ticket exchange website in the UK. In 2007, Seatwave customers listed more than 1.7 million tickets for events in no less than 38 countries on its site. The company further announced that the funds from the Series C financing will be used to replicate this success across Europe. Seatwave launched ticket exchanges in Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy during the last quarter of 2007.

Joe Cohen, CEO of Seatwave said about the investment in his company: “We’re delighted to be able to announce a further investment of $25 million in our business and to have found new investors who value our global vision and our ability to execute that vision. It’s also gratifying to receive the endorsement of our existing investors in their increased support of Seatwave. We are passionate about offering fans the largest marketplace for tickets to the events they love; this funding will help us offer that service to more fans, for more events in more countries.”

Commenting on the investment, Simon Clark, partner at Fidelity Ventures said “Through our experience in investing in and working with emerging online marketplaces such as Alibaba and Prosper, we have built a solid understanding of what it takes to become category leaders in this sector. We are convinced that Seatwave’s strong management team and solid business fundamentals combined with our global network of business and IT executives, positions the company to continue to lead the secondary ticket market in Europe.”

The company has expanded rapidly by offering fans of live events a secure and transparent environment in which to buy and sell tickets. Its strong customer protection measures have also attracted a host of partners including MSN, Associated Newspapers, the Kaiser Chiefs, London Irish Rugby Club, Time Out and Channelfly among many others.

Mark Tluszcz, Managing Partner at Mangrove Capital Partners commented: “Seatwave offers consumers the choice and level of service one expects from world class companies. By focusing on these values in the secondary ticketing market they have made their competitors look outdated and out of touch with consumer expectations.”

Sonali De Rycker, Partner at Atlas Venture added: “As the founding investor in Seatwave, we have been witness to the company’s explosive growth in a very short time frame. Recent exits in the space have legitimised the value of secondary ticketing players and are a great sign of things to come. With this funding, the company has the resources it needs to achieve its vision of building a very valuable category leader.”

Seatwave is the UK’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events. The company was launched in February 2007 by Joe Cohen, ex Ticketmaster and ex match.com and early stage Venture Capital firm, Atlas Venture. Seatwave has more than 500,000 tickets on sale at any one time, 25 times more than eBay.

Seatwave guarantees that tickets come only from legitimate sources and will represent them accurately and honestly. Seatwave operates two types of customer protection. TicketintegrityTM guarantees that buyers will receive the tickets they ordered and in good time for the event. If not Seatwave refunds 150% of what was paid. All tickets bought on Seatwave are also covered by TicketcoverTM. This provides for a full refund if an event is cancelled and even covers buyers for a range of circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance.

The company was founded in 2007 and is based in London.

For more information, please visit www.seatwave.com