Kevin Hartz, the Silicon Valley whizz kid taking on Old Street
27 October, 2011 Category: London Silicon Roundabout No Comments 
Original post by Gabriella Griffith via LLB
Ticketing tech wonder Eventbrite raised $50m in Series E funding earlier this year. Now, it’s heading to London
On Tuesday night in Shoreditch, deep in the wired-up bowels of Silicon Roundabout, San-Fran-based tech company Eventbrite celebrated the opening of its London office.
The office is in a space with a dozen or so other start-ups. Kevin Hartz, CEO and co-founder, is delighted to be mingling with fellow tech peers. He’s even staying at Bebo.com founder Michael Birch’s place while he’s here.
“Getting a free ride from an old friend,” he tells me.
From series E funding of $50m to arriving in London
Eventbrite received series E (the fifth round of) funding to the tune of $50m in May this year. The company’s raison d’être is to “democratise” the ticketing industry by taking the pain out of planning events of all shapes and sizes: “no event too large, no event too small,” insists Hartz.
Hartz admits Tiger Global, who led the latest funding round, has helped him think internationally. As a result he’ll be spending some of his new capital setting up here, in our capital.
Having created a .co.uk web domain, changed all talk of dollars to pounds and ironed out Americanisms to fit in with the Queen’s English the new site is ready for lift off. But looking at the figures, Eventbrite wasn’t faring too badly with us Brits before.
