Audience Republic, an Australian start-up that uses social platforms to drive ticket sales, has raised A$525,000 (€375,000/£325,000/$400,000) in its seed investment round.
Organisers pay to use the Sydney-headquartered software-as-a-service to create online campaigns that drive increased ticket sales to its existing ticketing providers, such as Ticketek, Ticketmaster or Eventbrite.
Formerly known as Ticket Squad and founded by former concert and festival promoter Jared Kristensen, and former chief technology officer of GoCatch Jason MacLulich in 2015, Audience Republic raised the seed round from Artesian Capital, QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, and several Australian angel investors.
Audience Republic said it would use the funds raised to accelerate customer acquisition and product development to boost customer data and analytics capabilities.
The company has sold more than $2m worth of tickets from event goers – mainly festivals, although it has also supported ticket sales for conferences and special events too.
“More than 85 per cent of events don’t sell out,” said Audience Republic chief executive Kristensen. “And with the live events sector being worth $3bn alone in Australia and $100bn globally, that’s a huge opportunity for us. We’re very much focused on being a global business. This is demonstrated by our first customers being outside of Australia.”
On average, Audience Republic said it delivered 76 per cent uplift in pre-sale registrations for events, with 203 per cent being its record – achieved through the virility of social shares.
It has run campaigns for Electric Gardens, Beyond the Valley, Pitch Festival, Days Like This, Mountain Sounds, Rhythm & Alps, Splore Festival and New Zealand’s Rhythm & Vines.
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