Tech5 winner Tiqets banks $17M Series B from HPE Growth Capital

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Do you hate standing in line as much as I do? Tiqets, one of the Netherlands’ prolific scale-ups, solves just that. Today, conveniently one day before The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, they’ve announced their Series B. It’s a US$ 17 million investment from a consortium of investors headed by HPE Growth Capital. The investment will enable the three-year-old company to scale globally and strengthen its “leading position in making culture and entertainment more accessible”.

Fastest growing tech company in the Netherlands

Tiqets has grown exponentially since the company’s founding in 2014. The company has 75 employees and, in addition to its head office in Amsterdam, has teams in New York, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, and Rome. This growth has led to the company winning the Dutch Tech5 award two years in a row. In addition, Tiqets has been again nominated for the European Tech5 award, the award for Europe’s fastest growing tech companies. The winner will be announced at the TNW Conference in Amsterdam, tomorrowThursday 18 May.

Admission tickets for museums and entertainment venues

Tiqets’ technology enables consumers to use their smartphones to buy admission tickets for museums and entertainment venues. Consumers can then use those tickets just a few seconds later on their mobiles, without having to queue at the entrance. According to the startups press release, “millions of people from more than 150 countries” are using the service. Tiqets previously raised $5.45M, of which $4M in a Series A last year, bringing the total amount of funding to $22.45M.

Marketing channel for venues

Tiqets is also becoming an increasingly important marketing channel for museums and attractions worldwide, because the website and app are available in seven languages. In addition, the technology is used by hundreds of travel companies, as well as influential blogs and hotel chains. Tiqets not only brings together a large group of new and difficult-to-target visitors; the company also helps its partners by sharing marketing information and helps to spread visitors throughout the day.

Last-minute “Tiqets”

“Our unique technology is a direct response to consumer demand for last-minute tickets to museums or attractions both at home and abroad. Our customers love the convenience of instant delivery without needing to print anything. Our investors have noticed that too; we are very pleased with the investment led by HPE Growth Capital, which will give Tiqets the resources it needs to continue to scale, so we can connect new cities, expand our partner network and strengthen our leading position in the market,” says Tiqets CEO Luuc Elzinga.

Impressed

Jonne de Leeuw, principal at HPE, comments: “We are excited to join Tiqets as a shareholder; one of the fastest growing scale-ups in Western Europe. We are impressed with the company’s focussed business model, the team’s speed of execution and its drive for a superior customer experience in combination with the highest quality offering.”

People waiting in a queue for entering the Louvre Museum image by Shuttterstock