Hive Raises $27 Million Series B From Frontier Growth to Build AI Assistants for Event Marketers

The mostly secondary round brings in a growth-equity partner as the ticketing-data marketing platform plans AI-powered assistants and more integrations.

Hive, the event marketing platform built for the live events industry, has raised a $27 million Series B from Charlotte-based growth equity firm Frontier Growth. The company said the capital will accelerate its product roadmap, deepen its ticketing and data integrations and expand its presence across the global live events market.

The round was announced Oct. 21. According to BetaKit, the vast majority of the $27 million was secondary capital used to nearly buy out Hive's first institutional investor, Avenue Growth Partners, which led the company's $7 million Series A in 2023. A small portion of primary capital will fund product development and go-to-market plans. Frontier founding partner Andrew Lindner is joining Hive's board. Hive's valuation was not disclosed.

Founded in 2014 by Ian Roberts and Patrick Hannigan and a Y Combinator alumnus, Hive says more than 1,600 venues, promoters and festivals use its platform to connect fan purchase data with email, SMS, advertising and CRM tools, and that it has helped customers generate more than $1 billion in ticket sales. Its more than 40 ticketing integrations, including Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventim, Etix, Tixr and DICE, pull buyer and event data into the platform so teams can build audiences by purchase history, location, artist and genre. In a published case study cited by the company, ASM Richmond generated more than $500,000 in sales linked to email marketing in its first three months on Hive.

"Live events have always been a data problem disguised as a marketing problem. For more than a decade, we have built the infrastructure that connects ticket buyers to the people putting on the show. Frontier Growth understands what we have built and where we are headed, and this partnership gives us the resources to bring that vision to every corner of the live industry." — Ian Roberts, CEO and Co-Founder, Hive

"Hive has established a strong position in live events with products that are central to how its customers sell tickets, supported by proprietary data and emerging network effects. The live events market is large, underserved by generic tools and moving quickly toward automation. Hive is positioned to lead that shift, and we are excited to partner with Ian and the team as they scale." — Andrew Lindner, Founding Partner, Frontier Growth

The next phase of Hive's roadmap centers on AI-powered assistants. The company said planned investments will focus on simplifying branded campaign preparation, reducing repetitive tasks and helping teams act on data insights to drive ticket sales, while keeping organizers in control of their voice and fan relationships. Hive will also expand its ticketing, data and advertising integrations. No launch timetable for the AI tools has been announced.

Hannigan, Hive's CTO, told BetaKit that the 75-person, Kitchener-Waterloo-based company has hovered around breakeven for years and is now "well past" $10 million in annual recurring revenue. He said Hive has raised about $35 million to date, most of it secondary.

"This isn't a venture investment. This isn't the, 'Oh I hope there's [a] 100x kind of opportunity [bet].' This is a sustainable, intentionally-built business." — Patrick Hannigan, CTO and Co-Founder, Hive

The raise follows a June 2 agreement in which Ticketmaster named Hive a Ticketmaster Marketing Partner within its Ticketmaster Nexus partner program. Under that integration, Ticketmaster ticketing activity syncs automatically into Hive, and clients can transfer existing TM1 Marketing audience lists into the platform.