Unsold ticket discount website www.LastSecondTicket.co.uk can announce a £1m second round investment from discount network Markco Media, following the company’s £450,000 first round investment from Markco Media, Charlotte Street Capital and other investors.
Last Second Ticket was founded three years ago and will now become a member of the Markco Media family, led by founder and Chairman Mark Pearson. The Last Second Ticket team will continue to work out of Markco Media’s London office. The company employs 17 full time staff members and is looking to grow the team.
The company intends to use the investment to build its technology team to help scale the business by automating many of the processes, as well as spend on marketing.
Every year an estimated 50 million tickets for live events in the UK remain unsold.
Last Second Ticket is the only company specialising in the unsold tickets arena. The company saves consumers money by securing unsold tickets for all types of live events directly from promoters and venues in the days running up to events. The tickets are then sold either directly to the consumer via the website or as part of Last Second Ticket’s corporate service.
The loyalty scheme offered to corporate clients is the company’s biggest growth area, providing brands such as Tesco, Mercedes Benz and Philips with both off-the-shelf customer or employee loyalty programmes and white label offerings. Last Second Ticket recently won a two year exclusive contract to provide FunFinder, the new customer retention service for Orange.
Craig Massey, founder of Last Second Ticket said of the investment, “I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved so far, but it really is only the tip of the iceberg. Our consumer offering is strong, providing great value tickets to site visitors, but our effort has to be in pushing further into customer and employee loyalty and with Mark and Markco Media’s further backing, I’m confident we can do so.
“To have an entrepreneur like Mark on your side is fantastic. I think I speak for the team when I say that we’re excited about the future of Last Second Ticket, which aims to become a leading global player in corporate loyalty schemes.”
Mark Pearson, Chairman of Markco Media had the following to say, “Last Second Ticket is a fantastic business model that fits perfectly into the Markco Media brand and ethos. When choosing to invest, scalability is always at the forefront of my mind and the way Craig and his team have built a unique business with multiple arms is exciting. I have no doubt the company will continue to successfully develop in the corporate loyalty arena, which has proved to be especially profitable, attracting household name brands in a relatively short space of time.”
