Gamified P2P Ticketing Company Physical Network Acquires We Represent to Form StreetTeam in $3.5M Deal: Exclusive
The U.K. based peer-to-peer ticketing software company counts Bonnaroo, Electric Zoo and Bestival among its clients.
The Physical Network, a U.K-based peer-to-peer ticketing software company, has acquired and incorporated direct competitor We Represent to form StreetTeam in a deal valued at nearly $3.5 million dollars (£2.5 million), according to its principles. The new company now works with more than a hundred festivals and events in 14 countries, including Bestival, Electric Daisy Carnival UK and Reading, and counts major promoters such as ID+T North America and Live Nation among its clients. Earlier this year, a deal was inked with the stalwart Bonarroo Music & Arts Festival.
“We only started working with Bonnaroo about eight weeks ago,” StreetTeam CEO Callum Negus-Fancey says. “It’s very early but they had more than a 1,000 ambassadors sign up when it launched.” Ambassadors?
StreetTeam’s pitch is to piggyback, enlisting social influencers, or “ambassadors,” who receive rewards in exchange for selling tickets to the events they attend. “The number-one reason someone attends a festival is because their friends are going,” Negus-Fancey, 25, tells Billboard. “So it’s all about trying to find those ring leaders and have them bring their mates.”
Rewards these ambassadors receive can include a free ticket (for selling eight tickets), backstage passes or VIP access (for sales of 16 tickets), and the opportunity to meet with a headliner (a lot of tickets). “It’s gamified,” Negus-Fancey explains. “It’s all experiential or rewards [that] money can’t buy that are tied to the event.” At Bestival, he says, one attendee traveled by yacht as a reward.
The CEO says his company has sold over 100,000 tickets since forming in 2012 and its current run rate of $2.5 million is generated in several ways: through licensing its peer-to-peer ticketing software, commissions on tickets sales, and consultancy services. Additional festivals employing StreetTeam’s services include Electric Zoo, Life Is Beautiful, Lights All Night, Freaky Deaky, Leeds, Digital Dreams, Country Stampede, Spring Awakening and SW4.
“We’ve had mega success with our fans telling their friends how much they love Bestival,” said Rob da Bank, Bestival founder. in a statement, “[we’re] growing our advocates year on year.” StreetTeam’s Negus-Fancey says sales numbers for the U.K. fest sold through his company are more than 15,000.
With offices in London, Poland and Los Angeles, the start-up is now in the process of raising Series A funding in Europe after receiving $3.5 million in seed money, according to Negus-Fancey. StreetTeam intends to seek its Series B, in the U.S. where some 50 percent of the company’s revenue is generated.
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