Xceed, one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the live events scene, has raised €2 million to grow its intelligent event discovery platform from a diverse group of European funds and investors.
This comes on top of a track record of two years of profitability and positive cash flow and will fuel the company’s growth and new market expansion across the EU in 2023. Xceed claims that this has been driven by the fact that it is unique in the industry as both a leading marketplace solution for end customers, i.e. event-goers, but also has one of the strongest software offerings for event organisers and venues.
Xceed was launched in Europe by Mattia Franco (who was selected by Forbes Italia as one of the top 30 leaders of the future under 30) and Luca Papaleo, who shared study desks and dance floors during their Master’s degree in San Francisco but often struggled to find the events they wanted.
The idea of Xceed was born and eventually grew in the Top 100 Apple Apps, and got in Spain’s Fastest Growing Startups list. The platform was built in collaboration with venues from four continents. It is available in over 15 countries and 125 cities and provides state-of-the-art software for the best clubs, bars and festivals in the world.
The software enables these clients to digitise their online presence and sales, as well as managing their staff, marketing and operations. This technology was lacking from the market and so Xceed’s arrival quickly got huge support from venues and promoters who had never before been able to entirely digitise their ticket, door, table and guestlist management systems using just one simple and effective platform.
Xceed also leverages machine learning technology to create an ultimate and painless live music events and artists discovery experience by coming at it from the side of the people – it is a platform created by music lovers, for music lovers.
As such, its innovative marketplace connects event-goers and event organisers while keeping the user experience at the core of everything. Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic all but shutting down the industry, Xceed has bounced back and then some.
Xceed’s first pre-seed round of €550,000 of investment was led by 360 Capital Partners in April 2015. In October 2019 there was a seed round of €2.3m which attracted new investors and industry experts such as Guillaume Penot, president at Moët Hennessy. This latest round secured VC funding to fuel the growth and new market expansion across the EU with €2 million led by Trind Ventures and joined by Jägermeister’s VC, Best Nights VC, and SuperHero Capital with the support of Angel investors such as Alessandro Fracassi, CEO & Founder @Mutuionline, Fernando Herrera, CEO @Northcloud, Andreas Mihalovits, Co-Founder @Global Super Angels Club and Lasse Laaksonen, CEO & Founder @Boksi.
Mattia Franco, CEO and co-founder of Xceed, says, “This funding round will boost our technological investment in the automation and personalization of going-out plans via machine learning and customizable events discovery user experience. It brings aboard some of the best funds and industry players in the European scene. They bring with them the best know-how and execution skills we could ask for in our journey towards launching new markets while consolidating our European leadership.”
So far, clients-generated content (such as venue and artists pages, events, tickets and other products) flows into a fully-transactional discovery platform that has transacted over 30M bookings and currently reaches over 10M unique event-goers per year in over 15 markets. Xceed already works with some of the world’s top festivals and clubs from Ibiza’s powerhouse Pacha to Portugal’s Brunch in the Park and Neopop, as well as Italian Just Cavalli, Phi Beach and many more.
Mattia continues, “The one thing that a pandemic taught us is how strongly we value real human connection. At Xceed we believe that millennials and generation Zs are more and more attracted to social experiences rather than cluttering their apartments with products. Our goal is to empower everyone to go out and live the best nights of their lives. Going out should be spontaneous, and Xceed promises to make events discovery simple and personalized, while ensuring that booking tickets, passes or bottle service is always easy and secure. This community-based approach allows people to focus on having fun, which is what life should all be about.“
This latest round of investment ensures Xceed remains on track to make that possible for people all over the world while providing analytics to venues, artists and promoters so that they can improve their everyday operations.
“We believe Xceed’s technology will transform the way we will consume live entertainment in the future” says Reima Linnanvirta, managing parter at Trind Ventures “Xceed has an excellent product catering the needs of different stakeholders, and it is backed by a team that has shown great determination, strength and resilience in building the business and fulfilling their long-term mission.”
