Eventbrite raises $60M at $1B valuation

The new funding may push IPO plans to 2015

Correction: Eventbrite has raised $60 million, not $50 million as was previously reported. Eventbrite confirmed the number.

Less than a year after raising $60 million from Tiger Global Management and T. Rowe Price, Eventbrite has racked up another $60 million from the same team at a $1 billion valuation, bringing its total raised to $190 million altogether.

The funding news was reported by Fortune and confirmed by Eventbrite.

The funding news comes as a bit of a surprise, as Eventbrite was pegged as a likely 2014 IPO candidate. But it appears Tiger and T. Rowe Price made an offer Eventbrite couldn’t refuse.

"Eventbrite is a fast-growing company focused on building the largest marketplace for events in the world," the company said in an emailed statement. "We are fortunate to have such supportive and engaged investors, and after working together and getting more insight into our business and traction, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price proactively approached us about increasing their investment. As a responsible, global startup in hypergrowth, we recognize the importance of having an appropriate level of invested capital to execute our growth strategy and control our destiny. For these reasons, we chose to accept the funding."

Fortune reports that the money will be used for continued geographic expansion and product development. Eventbrite aims to double or triple business in Western Europe in particular. Last September, the company bought its London-based rival Lanyrd, as well as its Latin American counterpart Eventioz.

As for product development, Eventbrite plans to continue to develop consumer-facing features for event discovery. Earlier this month, the company launched a self-service reserved seating solution.

Eventbrite passed a new milestone last year, processing nearly $1 billion in ticket sales for the whole year. To put that into perspective, it took the company six years to reach $1 billion in cumulative sales in 2012. Altogether, it has sold more than $2 billion in tickets. Online event ticketing in the U.S. alone is a $4 billion market, according to IbisWorld.

Nearly three million events in 187 countries used Eventbrite’s DIY ticketing service in 2013, and the app saw 2.3 million downloads last year alone.

IPO theories began surfacing last spring when Eventbrite hired Mark Rubash as its new CFO. Previously, Rubash was CFO for Shutterfly.

But instead of seeing an IPO in 2014, we’ll likely see one in 2015.

Insiders told Fortune that Eventbrite’s other investors, such as Sequoia Capital, Tenaya Capital, and DAG Ventures, did not participate in the round.

Image source: businessinsider.com