Tickets for Good, a UK social enterprise that redistributes unsold tickets to key workers at reduced prices, has raised €4.5 million to accelerate its international expansion and create 10 new jobs in Sheffield over the next three years, according to the company and its investors.
Funding aims to grow reach and capacity
The financing round was led by NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), alongside contributions from Shaping Impact Group (SI3), Finance Yorkshire, Leansquare and private investors.
Tickets for Good’s chief executive and co-founder, Steve Rimmer, said the investment represented “a huge vote of confidence” in the company’s model and would support international expansion and local job creation.
"Tickets for Good was built on a simple belief that live events should be available to everyone, especially the people who give so much to our communities. This investment is a huge vote of confidence in our team, our partners and the impact we’re creating," Steve Rimmer said.
The startup, which claims to have helped more than one million people access live events, takes surplus tickets and offers them to key workers and other targeted groups at reduced prices. The business model seeks to address two industry problems at once: wasted capacity at venues and barriers to access created by rising ticket prices.
Investor view and sector context
Chris Borrett, Investment Director at Mercia Ventures, described the funding as a strategic response to market demand. He said venues and promoters now recognise the benefits of full attendance and engaged audiences, and that Tickets for Good offered a solution that aligned the interests of fans, venues and promoters.
The investment sits within a wider wave of financing into technologies that support events and fan experiences across Europe. EU-Startups’ 2026 coverage cited several related financings, including:
- €1.4 million pre-seed for Exhibitly, an AI event personalisation startup;
- €6.5 million for Microamp, a Warsaw-based connectivity specialist;
- €3.6 million for AlphaLum, an immersive-technology company in Lausanne;
- €37 million for Silverflow, an Amsterdam-based payment infrastructure firm.
Together, those financings were reported as amounting to roughly €50 million across similar sectors, signalling investor appetite for event-technology and fan-experience platforms.
Implications for South Africa
South Africa’s live-entertainment and events sector faces parallel challenges: variable venue utilisation, rising ticket costs for consumers and limited access for lower-income and public-service workers. The Tickets for Good model highlights a potential route to improved attendance and social impact by repurposing unsold inventory.
For South African promoters, venues and cultural funders, the UK example offers several lessons:
- Partnering with employers and public-service institutions can create targeted access for frontline workers and essential staff;
- Technology-driven ticket redistribution can reduce waste and bolster secondary revenue streams for venues;
- Impact-focused startups can attract mission-aligned investors, including regional development funds and social-impact groups.
Any local adoption would need to navigate South Africa’s distinct regulatory and market environment, including pricing structures, tax treatment of tickets and partnerships with unions and government employers.
What next for Tickets for Good
The company said the funding will be used to scale internationally and to expand its team in Sheffield by 10 roles over three years. The announcement did not detail target markets for expansion or timelines for rollout beyond the job-creation commitment and the overall purpose of accelerating international growth.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Amount raised | €4.5 million |
| Lead investor | NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance (managed by Mercia Ventures) |
| Other investors | Shaping Impact Group (SI3), Finance Yorkshire, Leansquare, private investors |
| Planned job creation | 10 roles in Sheffield over three years |
As live events continue to recover and evolve post-pandemic, the flow of capital into event-tech and fan-experience startups will be a space to watch. For South Africa, the development underscores both the opportunity and the challenge of making cultural participation more inclusive while maintaining viable business models for venues and promoters.
