Xceed’s co-founders, Luca Papaleo (left) and Mattia Franco. Photo Credit: Xceed
Barcelona-headquartered events platform Xceed has announced the completion of a €2 million (currently $2.08 million) funding round.
The nine-year-old company, which says that it enables live event organizers and venues “to digitise their online presence and sales,” unveiled the multimillion-dollar raise in a formal release today. Beyond connecting entertainment-minded fans with music events (execs pointed to 30 million total bookings executed via their service to date), Xceed software assists venues in managing “their staff, marketing, ticket, door, table and guestlist systems,” per higher-ups.
Bearing in mind the multifaceted nature of Xceed’s offerings, Estonia’s Trind Ventures (which has backed companies including Sonarworks) led the just-revealed round, with additional participants including Berlin’s Best Nights VC (the VC of Jägermeister) and Helsinki’s Superhero Capital.
And on the angel-investor side, Xceed received capital from Mutuionline founder and CEO Alessandro Fracassi, Superhero general partner Fernando Herrera, Global Super Angels Club co-founder Andreas Mihalovits, and Boksi founder and CEO Lasse Laaksonen.
The €2 million tranche follows a €550,000 pre-seed round that wrapped in 2015 as well as a €2.3 million seed round in October of 2019, Xceed reiterated. Higher-ups intend to use the newest funds to build out their business’s technology and expand into new markets. (Xceed, not to be confused with artist investment platform Exceed, is currently available in around 125 cities across 15 nations.)
“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,” said Xceed co-founder and CEO Mattia Franco, whose company is said to count as clients Ibiza-headquartered Pacha Group, Spanish nightclub Es Paradis, and Italian venue Phi Beach, to name a few.
“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 Southern European leadership,” he finished.
Xceed’s €2 million raise arrives after both Festicket and Pollen shut down in 2022, following the unprecedented damage inflicted upon the live entertainment space by lockdown measures and large-gathering bans.
On the former front, Festicket’s debts topped $27 million, bankruptcy documents revealed, and Lyte ultimately acquired the London-headquartered music festival platform’s assets. Meanwhile, destination events company Pollen, despite claiming to have raised $150 million via a Series C in April, owed $83 million to creditors when it permanently shut down in August after months of much-publicized operational difficulties.