Spanish After-Market Ticket Exchange Ticketbis Raises Further €3 Million

Always be raising. Ticketbis, the Spanish startup that operates an exchange for buying and selling after-market tickets to events in Europe, Latin America, and most recently Asia, has topped up its funding for a sixth time.

This time around, the five-year old company, which counts a number of other aftermarket ticket exchanges, such as Viagogo, Seatwave, Stubhub, and Getmein, as competitors, has raised €3 million. This brings total investment in the startup to €14 million.

The round was led by previous backer Active Venture Partners, along with so-called super angel Fabrice Grinda and Mexico-based investor José Marín of IG Expansion Business Development.

Jon Uriarte, CEO and co-founder of Ticketbis, says the new capital will enable Ticketbis to invest in improving the quality of its service, bedding down new markets, specifically in Asia, and developing its mobile products.

Naturally, the company is also talking up growth, and says that turnover on the first quarter of 2015 is “already double the previous year”. Of course it stops short of actually disclosing revenue, let alone profit. The startup has over 350 employees and claims to operate in more than 30 countries worldwide.

Having previously bemoaned Spain’s hostile VC market, Ticketbis says this latest round is a further sign that investment continues to pick up in the country.

Citing research from Startupxplore, it notes that in the last quarter of 2014, Spanish tech startups raised a total of €77 million in 42 rounds, averaging €1.83 million per round — four times more than was raised in the same period of 2013.