Eticketing site Peatix gets $5M funding to explore more markets in Asia

Japan-based online ticketing platform Peatix today announced that it has raised US$5 million in series B funding, bringing its total to US$9 million to date. The investment was led by DG Incubation, and participated in by Singapore’s SPH Media Fund, Japanese PR firm Sunny Side Up, Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, and Draper Nexus.

Since its founding in 2011, Peatix has sold over 1.2 million tickets across 50,000 events in 26 countries. According to a statement, it more than doubled its tickets sold from 2013 to 2014.

While the Japanese startup is often compared to large incumbents in the event management space such as US-based Eventbrite, Peatix’s CEO Taku Harada believes that the sites serve different market segments and as such should not be compared head-to-head. “Our main focus is independent, community event organisers,” he explains.

Beyond that, Peatix differentiates itself with a focus on creating a user-friendly, mobile-focused experience for its users. The funding will be used to double down on this competitive advantage. “We will be shipping a new iOS app for attendees in several weeks, with an Android version to follow,” reveals Harada. “The new app will feature enhanced event discovery and search capabilities. Our platform features already contribute to bringing close to 15 percent more attendees to events, and we intend to bring this number higher.”

The investment will also go towards expanding to new markets in Asia – Harada declined to reveal which countries they are looking at. Having entered the region via Singapore two years ago, 20 percent of its ticketing volume currently comes from markets outside of Japan, up from 15 percent when Tech in Asia last spoke to Peatix in mid-2014. Peatix’s CEO did not disclose any other figures, though he claims that they are “seeing strong growth by month and by year.”

With SPH Media Fund on board, Singaporeans will likely be seeing the two entities working together more this year. “SPH also has business units in events, and there are direct synergies and possible opportunities for collaboration in the future,” says SPH Media Fund CEO Chua Boon Ping.