Former Ticketmaster and Match.com executive Joe Cohen has gained $8m (£4m) of VC funding to grow his ticket trading business.
Seatwave, which started trading in February, is already the UK’s largest ‘fan to fan’ ticket exchange with over 400,000 tickets on sale on its website - which is more than eBay the company says.
It offers concert goers and sports fans the chance to buy and sell tickets in a safe and legal way and aims to take a major slice of the £1bn UK secondary ticket market.
The company has received financial backing from Mangrove Capital Partners, the VC which first backed Skype, as well as high profile German business angel Oliver Jung.
The latest funding will be used to recruit more staff and to take the business across Europe into a market worth as much as £5bn.
Mangrove and Jung are joining Atlas Ventures in funding Seatwave which originally backed the business for $3m (£1.5m) in May 2006.
“We are delighted to be working with some of the leading internet investors in Europe,” Cohen said.
“We are passionate about building a strong marketplace for tickets, offering our customers the safest as well the most competitive environment for them to buy tickets to all types of events.
“In a very short time we’ve become the number one ticket exchange in the UK and we hope to soon expand across Europe.”
Mark Tluszcz, co-founder and managing partner at Mangrove, will join Seatwave’s board.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007