Singapore’s Hapz tech event booking platform secures $500,000 in seed round

Singapore-based Hapz, an event and ticketing technology platform, has secured around $500,000 (£390,000/€425,000) in a seed round led by Cocoon Capital and SPH Media Fund.

The company has confirmed that the money raised will go toward expanding its staff, as well as building new partnerships with merchants and event organisers in Asia.

The firm says it is the first platform in Southeast Asia to provide end to-end services including event discovery, ticket sales, exclusive deals and customer support. The platform aggregates the top 100 events happening in Singapore, as well as providing customers with the opportunity to use a dynamic pricing system.

Through the site, customers can decide on a price they are willing to pay for an event, and then the platform will notify them if the price falls within an acceptable range generated by the system.

Chief technology officer and co-founder Lai Xin Chu, said: “Hapz leverages machine learning to generate real time insights about our customers’ choices and purchase behaviour.”

Other investors include Quest Ventures, TinkBig Venture and an angel investor. A Hapz representative said that the pull for investors is that there is “no existing player in the South-East Asia region who can do cross-border experience booking.”

While no expansion details have been revealed, Hapz is reportedly looking to expand into neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.

Michael Blakey, managing partner at Cocoon Capital, said: “We believe that Hapz has the potential to build the No.1 experience booking platform in Asia. The Hapz team is executing at lightning speed and Cocoon Capital is very proud to join their journey.”

The company also supports event organisers by providing them with real-time insights on demographics, pricing data and how they compare to other events.

Hapz said: “We believe that each event vertical in itself has massive revenue potential, which would naturally attract new players. In ticketing alone, we can see numerous new players coming in to cater to specific event requirements in the different verticals. What we are doing is cross-vertical and focused more on understanding what the market wants and making them more accessible to the modern consumer.

“Verticals-wise – we have five on our platform right now (concerts, attractions, sports, festivals, performances) and will continue to focus on them for them for the near-future.”

Image: Erwin Soo