London-based Festicket, a platform for music festival experiences which was recently ranked as the 80th fastest growing company in Europe by the Financial Times, has announced the acquisition of the UK-based ticketing and event management platform Event Genius, including its brand Ticket Arena. The acquisition comes on the heels of two funding rounds for the company, in February 2018 and November 2018. We also recently featured Festicket as one of the best startups to work for in Europe.
Festicket allows music fans to discover and book tickets and travel packages for over 2,000 music festivals worldwide. Its marketplace brings together nearly 6,000 accommodation and travel suppliers to create unique festival experiences for millions of festival-goers from around the world.
The acquisition will result in a new offering called Event Genius by Festicket – an end-to-end platform for organizers and fans to provide the most complete offering in the live entertainment industry. The platform will bring together technology and expertise including ticketing, accommodation, travel & packages, marketing, data insights & analytics, access control, POS and cashless payment services, fan engagement tools and more to plug a gap in the market that no other organisation has addressed to date.
The acquisition will help Festicket in its mission to become the world’s largest platform for live events and build on recent success stories such as its exclusive UK and European partnership with Coachella.
Founded by Reshad Hossenally, Event Genius offers complete event solutions to some of Europe’s best known events including Wales Rally GB, Motion Bristol, Annie Mac’s Lost & Found Festival, Summer Daze, Ibiza Rocks, and BPM Festival.
“The acquisition transforms Festicket’s product set,” said Zack Sabban, CEO and co-founder at Festicket. “In Event Genius, we have found a company that shares our mission to be a disruptive force in the live entertainment market and – ultimately – to bring the best possible experiences to fans. Reshad and the team have built a great product they have good reason to be proud of, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Festicket family.”
To date, Festicket, Event Genius and Ticket Arena have collectively served more than 4.5 million customers from over 120 countries. Following the acquisition, Festicket will roll out the combined solution worldwide to festivals, concerts, clubs, sports, family attractions and more.
“The Event Genius mission has always been to utilize technology to bring event organizers and consumers a better experience, regardless of the size or type of event,” said Reshad Hossenally, who will join Festicket as Chief Supply Chain Officer. “Couple this with Festicket’s global marketplace and supplier network and we have something truly unique for the events industry.”
