Extra investment for Fatsoma
ONLINE ticketing platform Fatsoma has taken a further equity investment from the North West Fund for Digital & Creative.
The Manchester firm, set up in in 2006 by directors Paul Stacey, Ben Taylor and Chris Pearson, uses social media to sell tickets for event promoters, venue owners and festival organisers.
In March the company, which has sales of around £7m, secured an undisclosed equity investment from the fund, alongside a personal investment from its new chairman, LateRooms co-founder Chris Allen.
The value of the latest investment was also undisclosed. The North West Fund for Digital & Creative is a £15m sub-fund of the £155m European Union-backed North West Fund. It is managed by AXM venture Capital.
Fatsoma is used by 8,000 businesses across the UK and has more than 900,000 members, including 50,000 Fatsoma reps who sell tickets for venues and promoters through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
Ben Taylor, co-founder and director, said: “The period in between Fatsoma’s initial investment and where we are today, has been a hugely exciting time for the business. Not only have we seen our efforts in building a better platform for promoters pay off with promoters selling more tickets than ever before, but the benefits have come full circle as our bottom line growth has accelerated beyond our initial expectations.
“The investment from the North West Fund has allowed us to act quickly on our vision and stay ahead of the curve with innovation. Whilst Facebook and Twitter have always been brilliant sources of sales for us, we’re finding that our solution is ideal for the emerging number of personal and group chat applications like WhatsApp, Kik and iMessage.”
David Smith, investment director at AXM, said: “In the short period since our first investment, Fatsoma has shown a huge increase in revenues, resourced its team up to over 20 staff, and delivered an entirely rebuilt version 2.0 of its flagship platform. We are pleased to be able to support the company by making a second round investment to further accelerate this rate of progress.”
