Entrepreneurs behind ticket comparison site breathing own fire after rejecting Dragons
THE YOUNG entrepreneurs behind the world’s first ticket comparison site have big plans for 2017 after receiving three offers in the Dragons’ Den, all of which they rejected.
TickX, a free site which allows customers to browse and compare tickets for gigs, theatre productions, sporting events, club nights and much more across the country, impressed the Dragons with its advanced technology that pulls all the ticket sellers into one platform.
Co-founders Steve Pearce and Sam Colley appeared on the BBC show in the hopes of receiving £75,000 for a 5% stake in TickX, but instead declined the offers made, feeling the Dragons undervalued their concept.
Yorkshire-born Steve said: “I came up with the idea at university as a result of going out far too often and when I contacted Sam, we were both amazed that it hadn’t been done before and there wasn’t one single place event goers could see everything happening, who’s selling the tickets and who has the cheapest tickets.”
Since filming the BBC programme in May 2016, the pair have raised £750,000 in funding for the business, which was hailed as ‘the Uber of events’ on the show. 
Going into the Den, TickX had already received £175,000 of funding from lead investor Ministry of Sound, which had been instrumental in the site’s initial growth.
Steve added: “Turning down the Dragons was a tough decision but we knew that we’d got great names on board already and we were very confident in where we were up to.
“We’re even more determined now to make a success of it and as a result we’ve gone onto raise ten times more than we asked for in the Den, at a significantly higher valuation. And in saying no to the dragons we’ve still managed to bring on board amazing investors.”
24Haymarket, chairman of BskyB Nick Ferguson, and Stan Boland are among the many investors TickX has since taken on board.
“Its full steam ahead, we’re building our staff team growing from seven to 12 in the next 3-4 months, then it’s a case of grow, grow, grow, European expansion, and we’ll be looking to raise another substantial round of funding in around 12-18 months’ time.”
As well as plans to launch in Europe this year – starting in Ireland – the Manchester-based team will soon be launching a Facebook bot, capable of replying to customers’ ticket-related questions instantly.
Steve said: “We want to become the global go to platform for searching events – hope to become the Skyscanner of event ticketing.”
