Ticketing platform Dice has raised $122 million in Series C funding. The round was led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with additional investments from Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud Private Equity, Cassius and Evolution. Fadell, the co-inventor of the iPod and iPhone, is joining the Dice board to support further platform development and expansion into venues.
“We believe Dice’s technology has the capacity to transform the future of live entertainment,” said SoftBank Investment Advisers managing partner Yanni Pipilis in a release. “Alongside the flexibility and security of seamless ticketing, the platform connects fans, artists and venues in a completely new way… We are excited to partner with Dice to help create remarkable event experiences for fans all over the world.”
The music discovery and events app works with over 3,600 venues, festivals and promoters globally and has sold tickets to fans in nearly 180 countries. Founded in 2014, its mission is to remedy the opaque world of ticketing with its transparent, fan-first model. The technology includes upfront pricing and features such as refunds on sold-out shows and a “waitlist” that helps fans get into in-demand shows and ensures venues are at capacity to increase revenue. Dice also combats for-profit resellers by preventing secondary resale of tickets.
Dice’s business model also includes a livestreaming service that offers artists, venues and promoters support with logistics, marketing, production, distribution, merch and more.
With the additional funding, Dice plans to significantly grow the company by expanding its reach to artists, fans and venues, while hiring new team members, adding to its livestream offering and launching an ambitious artist development program that will see the platform work directly with even more artists on their live strategy.
“Dice is rewiring the live experiences industry. We have proven that if you treat fans well, they go out more,” said Dice founder and CEO Phil Hutcheon in a release. “We’re overhauling an unfair, inefficient system by pioneering a transparent, data-led, fan-first approach – building a scalable ecosystem that helps artists, promoters and venues thrive. To have SoftBank as a partner enables us to expand into every market.”
“The concert business is a tangled mess of archaic tools and taxing ‘industry standards’ where artists are paid last. Venues shell out for marketing and are beholden to ticket conglomerates. Fans have to hunt for shows and regularly buy overpriced tickets from secondary markets or scalpers. This doesn’t make sense!” said Fadell in a release. “Dice re-engineers the entire live industry, not just a part of it: Venues are connected to fans and artists. Artists get transparency, access and control. Fans easily discover local shows and global live streams, and buy scalper-safe tickets with a single click. I’m ecstatic to be joining the Dice board and to be part of another entertainment revolution.”
