Ticket search engine FanSnap scores $5.5M

Venture Beat — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:47:14 -0500

FanSna p, a search engine that helps users find event tickets at the last minute, has landed $5.5 million in second-round financing to finish building out its service (currently in beta), and to add new ticket vendors. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners.

Before you think “Geez, as if we need another ticket site,” take a closer look. FanSnap isn’t the same as Ticketmaster and its ilk. It actually sits on a higher level, integrating seamlessly with feeds from other ticket providers to offer users the best tickets at low prices (much like Travel Zoo and airline tickets, or Zillow and real estate listings). Not only that, it’s live, which means search results are more likely to be accurate — cutting down on the chance that you’ll get all the way through the reservation process only to be told the tickets aren’t actually available after all. FanSnap actually messages the provider of the tickets to ensure the prices have not changed before referring its users.

The Palo Alto, Calif. web site partners with big name online ticket providers like StubHub, RazorGator, TicketNetwork and AllShows.com (more than 50 altogether), to give users even more options to compare — even at the very last minute. In fact, the company’s chief executive, Mike Janes, left a post at Stubhub to co-found FanSnap, a fact that has given it some sway in the online ticketing space.

In addition to aggregating search results from different sites, FanSnap has a couple other leading-edge features. For example, users can view the price distribution of available tickets for an event at a glance (could come in handy if you want to see if there are cheaper seats in the same section of a venue). They can check availability for a series of events at once, like a baseball homestand. They can even view where available tickets are on zoomable maps of various arenas, stadiums and theaters.

There are a few sites doing similar things. TicketStumbler, Ticketwood and Tickex, to name a few, list search results across hundreds of ticket brokers and exchanges, also allowing users to easily compare price points. But most just refer you to the site the tickets were found on, and the mapping component is not nearly as fine-tuned as FanSnap. On the other end of the spectrum, SeatQuest focuses on showing you exactly where you would be sitting on a clearly-rendered map, but the rest of the interface isn’t as clean, and a search for “San Francisco Giants” also yielded the results “Bob Dylan Tribute Contest” (which granted, might be cool), and Candice Bergen. They might want to work on that.

FanSnap, founded just last year, launched its beta test in October. It received a previous round of $5.5 million from General Catalyst and other undisclosed investors last year.