Nigerian startup Tix Africa, a self-service ticketing platform for event creators, has secured a six-figure pre-seed funding round to scale its event products and also expand operations to Ghana and East Africa.
Tix Africa is an event technology platform that helps event organisers harness granular data from attendees, reducing costs and maximising revenues in the process. The app provides tools and services that help event organisers efficiently plan and deliver events, with features including online ticketing, access control, cashless payments, and event reporting.
Tix Africa launched in 2019 to solve the challenges of ticketing live events in Lagos. The founders have successfully run the Eat Drink Lagos Food Festival since 2015, and as a result of encountering challenges of accurately collating guest details, payments and ticketing the events, built Tix to plug the gap in user data readily available to event organisers under the company’s original name of Festival Coins.
The platform currently makes it easy for organizers to create and monetise live or virtual events, enabling the creation of a customisable event page, secure payment collection via Paystack, and giving guests a seamless way to book and attend live events.
Its pre-seed funding round was led by HoaQ, with participation from a number of private equity investors. The funding will enable Tix Africa to build its technology to scale its events apps, primarily by launching Tix Pro – a paid version of Tix offered on a recurring subscription basis. The startup also plans to expand operations to Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Egypt in the coming months.
“Nigeria has some of the best events you can attend – no one does private gatherings or public events and festivals like us. We want to continue providing the best tech-enabled solution for event organisers and attendees so that each event is a seamless, accessible experience from the moment tickets are booked, right through to arriving and gaining entry to the actual event,” said Tix Africa chief executive officer (CEO) Folayemi Agusto.
“The new capital will enable us to scale quicker and to integrate the currently separate products and services we offer, including an app offering event attendees a marketplace where they can buy, trade and resell tickets securely. We’re really excited to expand our platform to other markets across the continent, potentially enabling users to attend events they may otherwise not have known about.”
Joe Kinvi, managing partner at HoaQ, said he was delighted to back a “truly enterprising and innovative” team.
“Folayemi and Nosa deeply understand this space and have built Tix Africa to cater for the markets they will be serving. We are confident that their vision to adapt their offering and expand their tech team and product offerings will fuel their continued growth and development in the coming years,” he said.
