London-headquartered music ticket platform Dice has raised $65m (£51.4m) to fuel its US and global rollout.
Tickets on Dice cannot be resold as each individual ticket is linked to the buyer’s smartphone. This is designed to combat ticket touts reselling for inflated prices.
“We’re investing heavily in building even more technology and this year alone we released over 60 new features for fans, venues and artists,” says Phil Hutcheon, CEO and founder of Dice.
Dice states the full price of tickets upfront rather than adding on booking fees at the end. Dice says this is so users get “no surprises later”.
Dice, along with ticket platform rivals including Airbnb and Ticketmaster, agreed to offer consumers upfront pricing following a meeting with US President Joe Biden in June.
Along with the new capital, Ali Byrd becomes Dice’s latest chief financial officer, who has experience at AI health tech company Olive and Microsoft.
Launched in 2014, Dice says it will be used by at least 55,000 artists and that over 10,000 destinations will sell their tickets through the service this year.
The company plans to use the cash influx to expand to new locations, including Austin, Texas.
Willard Ahdritz, founder of Ahdritz Holdings LLC and Kobalt Music, said that Dice has “come a long way on their vision, and today it’s even clearer that the live industry needs changing”.
Investment firm Music headlined the funding round, with supporting investors Structural Capital, Ahdritz Holding LLC, Exor Ventures and Mirabaud Lifestyle Fund providing backup.
Music’s chief executive Matt Pincus also joins Dice’s board as part of the deal.