Ticketland scores $10-million through iTech Capital VC fund

iTech Capital, a Russia-based Private Equity and Venture Capital fund, recently announced investing US$10-million in Ticketland which is said to become the largest event ticketing company in Eastern Europe.

Company sales channels include 130 retail box offices (owned and partners), web site (booking), call center and e-ticket. Ticketland revenue model includes service charge 10% from customers purchasing tickets. E-ticketing currently provides 15% of the company’s overall revenue.

For those of you not too familiar with the ticketing landscape in Russia, Ticketland consists of three major market players such as United Art Tickets which provides e-tickets for live events, MDTZK (Moscow Theatre and Shows Ticket Offices Direction) which is a retail chain in Moscow with more than 130 outlets and Arena Group which focuses on sport ticketing processing supplier.

CEO of Ticketland Vitaly Vinogradov says, “With the new investor we are aiming to enhance our online sales channel and to raise electronic ticket share up to 50 percent.”

The company plans to implement new online services and marketing initiatives based on Big Data technology (user behavior models research) that provides for a very attractive value added marketing channel for event organizers.

The fund’s Managing Partner Gleb Davidyuk notes that Ticketland is following popular market trends by focusing on tech development:

“Ticketland is a good consolidation of the strongest tech and retail players in a field of ticketing. As a value added investor we are happy to provide the company with new opportunities for their growth via marketing synergy with key online marketing players in the fund’s portfolio.”

More than 2 million tickets for more than 40,000 events are marketed annually via Ticketland outlets and internet platforms. Overall, the total Russian market for entertainment event ticketing is growing with 20% annually and currently exceeds US$1-billion.