Several event tech platforms and companies, including Pollen and Festicket, have been struggling lately as they have been saddled with debt and become insolvent. However, all hope is not lost for the event tech sector as it continues to attract venture capital interest — the latest event platform to announce a new round of funding is Xceed, which just raised an additional €2 million in a round led by Trind Ventures and including support from several other VC’s and angel investors.
Xceed, which was founded by Mattia Franco and Luca Papaleo, is an event discovery platform for fans powered by machine learning that also provides a software offering for event organizers by enabling them to manage their staff, marketing, guestlists, and more. This round brings the company’s total funding up to a little over €4.8 million following a pre-seed round in 2015 and a follow-up seed round in 2019.
The platform has recorded over 30 million bookings since its inception and has experienced positive cash flow and profitability for the past two years. In addition, it currently reaches more than 10 million eventgoers annually across 15+ markets.
Xceed CEO and co-founder Mattia Franco noted that the company plans to use this new funding to boost its technological investment in developing its machine learning events discovery platform and to fuel new market expansion across the EU.
"The one thing that a pandemic taught us is how strongly we value real human connection,” said Franco. “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 social experiences of their lives. Those experiences should be spontaneous, and Xceed empowers clubbers to interact, follow their favourite artists, and book events in a single tap, so they can concentrate on having fun, which is what life should all be about.”