Lancaster based start-up, Vibe Tickets, successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign by offering equity stake to its fans from as little as £10. 

10 per cent of the free peer-to-peer ticket marketplace business is now owned by its 316 fan investors, thanks to a Crowdcube campaign that raised £610,080 in four weeks.

Vibe Tickets has developed a mobile app which connects fans buying or selling spare tickets for concerts and other live shows, seen as the ‘Airbnb of the ticketing world’ for its transparency and ethics.

According to the start-up, it also stands against hidden added fees or commissions to future in-app transactions. The usual model of tacking on added fees unjustly inflates ticket prices and exacerbates the ticket touting problem that the UK is currently experiencing.

A Harris Interactive study on the attitudes towards the ethics of re-selling tickets amongst British fans reveals a market ripe for ethical start-ups. Among young fans, 80 per cent would rather make another fan happy by selling their spare ticket at face value than make a profit from the resell.

“Many warned us of the risk of crowdfunding in such a public manner. But this company was built on openness and transparency. In the Vibe office, we live our motto “for fans by fans”, and this crowdfunding campaign was about making sure we involve the users in our journey so we don’t ever lose touch with them,” according to founder Luke Massie.

Vibe Tickets was founded in 2013 by Massie who started off with a simple Twitter hashtag connecting fans. Last June, Vibe Tickets became a top three finalist in the Virgin Media Business VOOM competition, built on the ideals of a free and transparent ticket marketplace. Following the company’s crowdfunding campaign has also attracted technology investor Vela Technologies plc., which specialises in pre-IPO disruptive technology companies and is now a shareholder of Vibe Tickets.