DICE, the fast growing music discovery and events ticketing platform, today announced it has raised up to $122 million in Series C funding. The round was led by new investor, SoftBank Vision Fund 21, with follow on investments from Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud Private Equity, Cassius and Evolution.2
Since being founded in 2014, DICE has focused on remedying the opaque world of ticketing with its transparent ‘fan-first’ model and a mobile-first platform that has prevented scalping.
The company’s mission is to bring people together to enjoy shows. DICE makes it easy for fans to discover and buy tickets to live and live stream shows in seconds. DICE has clear upfront pricing, and features such as refunds on sold-out shows and a popular “Waitlist” feature that provides diehard fans with access to the most popular concerts and ensures that venues are at capacity, which in turn increases their revenue. Additionally, artists no longer lose out on ticket sales as the company prevents secondary resale of tickets through its innovative technology3.
“We believe DICE’s technology has the capacity to transform the future of live entertainment,” said Yanni Pipilis, Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers. “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.”
With the additional funding, DICE will significantly grow the company by expanding reach to artists, fans and venues, while hiring new team members, adding to its live stream offering, and launching an ambitious artist development program that will see the platform work with even more artists directly 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 Phil Hutcheon, CEO and Founder of DICE “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.”
DICE has differentiated itself from competitors in its unique focus on repeat fans, and its Discovery algorithm is responsible for over 40% of tickets sold, hugely benefiting artists and venues.
The industry has taken note – DICE works with over 3,600 venues, festivals and promoters globally, including Brooklyn’s Avant Gardner and one of the world’s biggest music festivals, Primavera Sound.
In addition to physical events, at the start of the pandemic last year, DICE pioneered ticketed live streaming. Spanning music, arts and culture, DICE has powered over 6,400 live streams to date, spearheading a true hybrid future for the industry. Paid live streams gave artists direct access to fans and income around the world – to that end, DICE has set up a global network of incredible venues to allow them to broadcast their live shows to expand their reach and commerce capabilities.
Direct access to fans is not just for live streams. DICE is empowering artists like Bicep to keep control of their touring. The electronic act grew from 300 to over 30,000 tickets per event in London as a result of their exclusive partnership with DICE.
“We began working with DICE as soon as Bicep started doing live shows in London. They encouraged us to sell tickets direct to the fans on the app and to trust the data allowing us to invest in the event rather than extra marketing. We plotted out a strategy, selling out quickly, delivering exponential growth show by show. This has allowed us to stay independent and choose our partners. It has worked amazingly for the artist, our fans, partners and label. We’re excited to use the DICE model globally, hopefully building similar success in all of our key markets,” Oli Isaacs, Manager of Bicep, commented.
In this critical phase of growth, Tony Fadell, iPod inventor and iPhone co-inventor who brought music to the palm of our hand, is joining the DICE board to support further platform development and expansion into venues.
“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 Tony Fadell, inventor of the iPod. “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.”
With the company’s current rate of growth, 49,000 artists and creators will use DICE by the end of 2022.
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