Eventbrite Acquires Spanish Ticketing Provider Ticketea

Eventbrite, by its own admission the world’s largest ticketing and event technology platform, has acquired Spanish ticketing provider Ticketea for an undisclosed sum.

– Ticketea becomes Eventbrite
Javier Andre, country director of Spain and Portugal,s and Frans Jonker, general manager continental Europe

The deal is going to extend Eventbrite’s global footprint. Ticketea claims to have been one of Spain’s market leaders for festivals, working with events such as Arenal Sound, Viña Rock, Low Festival, and Dreambeach.

These festivals now join Eventbrite’s worldwide event roster, which includes Newport Folk Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival, Vrienden van Amstel Live, Tomorrowland Spain, Sonus Festival, BigCityBeats, and Rainbow Serpent.

Ticketea co-founder and CEO Javier Andres becomes Eventbrite’s country director of Spain and Portugal, and most of Ticketea’s staff remain on board.

Said Andres: “We have been building a significant market presence in Spain for nearly a decade and it’s exciting to be recognized by the global leader in event technology as they invest more heavily in our growing market.”

He added, “joining forces brings tremendous value to our customers, who will now benefit from Eventbrite’s proven track record of innovation, global team, and deep resources. We look forward to extending the impact of both our team and technology far beyond country borders to the more than 180 countries and territories where their powerful platform gives rise to millions of events today.”

Stefan Wieland – Julia Hartz
CEO and co-founder of Eventbrite

Eventbrite’s CEO and co-founder Julia Hartz commented: “Ticketea’s innovative approach to solving challenges for both event creators and seekers, including a robust discovery platform, has helped them achieve impressive brand equity and a strong leadership position in not only Spain, but the broader southern European market.

She said there was “incredible synergy between our two companies from a business, platform, and brand perspective. We’re thrilled to welcome their talented team, who shares our core mission of bringing people together through live experiences, to the Eventbrite family.”

In the beginning of last year, Eventbrite acquired Ticketscript from Amsterdam. In September, it paid Pandora $200 million for Ticketfly.

Pollstar recently spoke to Ticketfly co-founder Andrew Dreskin, who sits on Eventbrite’s board, about all things ticketing.

Eventbrite also has an integration with UK face-value resale platform Twickets, showing its commitment to curb the for-profit commercial resale of tickets.

Eventbrite claims to have processed $10 billion in gross ticket sales since its inception in 2006 by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz, and Renaud Visage. It claims to have powered events in 180 countries and territories in 2017 alone, attracting more than 50 million people in total.