Dice has raised up to $122 million in series C funding.
The round was led by a new investor, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with follow-on investments from Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud Private Equity, Cassius and Evolution.
Since being founded in 2014, Dice has focused on its transparent ‘fan-first’ model and a mobile-first platform that has prevented scalping. It has clear upfront pricing, features such as refunds on sold-out shows and a Waitlist feature. The company prevents secondary resale of tickets through its technology.
“We believe Dice’s technology has the capacity to transform the future of live entertainment,” said Yanni Pipilis, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Alongside the flexibility and security of seamless ticketing, the platform connects fans, artists and venues in a completely new way. We are excited to partner with Dice to help create remarkable event experiences for fans all over the world.”
With the additional funding, Dice will significantly grow the company by expanding reach to artists, fans and venues, while hiring new team members, adding to its livestream offering, and launching an artist development programme that will see the platform work with more artists directly on their live strategy.
“Dice is rewiring the live experiences industry,” said Phil Hutcheon, CEO and founder of Dice. “We have proven that if you treat fans well, they go out more. We’re overhauling an unfair, inefficient system by pioneering a transparent, data-led, fan-first approach - building a scalable ecosystem that helps artists, promoters and venues thrive. To have SoftBank as a partner enables us to expand into every market.”
Dice works with over 3,600 venues, festivals and promoters globally, including Brooklyn’s Avant Gardner and one of the world's biggest music festivals, Primavera Sound.
In addition to physical events, at the start of the pandemic, Dice pioneered ticketed livestreaming. Spanning music, arts and culture, it has powered over 6,400 livestreams to date, as the industry looks to a hybrid future.
Dice has also worked with artists like Bicep to keep control of their touring. The electronic act grew from 300 to over 30,000 tickets per event in London following their exclusive partnership with Dice.
“We began working with Dice as soon as Bicep started doing live shows in London,” said Oli Isaacs, manager of Bicep. “They encouraged us to sell tickets direct to the fans on the app and to trust the data allowing us to invest in the event rather than extra marketing.
“We plotted out a strategy, selling out quickly, delivering exponential growth show by show. This has allowed us to stay independent and choose our partners. It has worked amazingly for the artist, our fans, partners and label. We’re excited to use the Dice model globally, hopefully building similar success in all of our key markets.”
With the company’s current rate of growth, 49,000 artists and creators will use Dice by the end of 2022.
In this phase of growth, Tony Fadell, iPod inventor and iPhone co-inventor, is joining the Dice board to support further platform development and expansion into venues.
“The concert business is a tangled mess of archaic tools and taxing ‘industry standards' where artists are paid last,” he said. “Venues shell out for marketing and are beholden to ticket conglomerates. Fans have to hunt for shows and regularly buy overpriced tickets from secondary markets or scalpers. This doesn’t make sense!
"Dice re-engineers the entire live industry, not just a part of it: Venues are connected to fans and artists. Artists get transparency, access and control. Fans easily discover local shows and global live streams, and buy scalper-safe tickets with a single click. I’m ecstatic to be joining the Dice board and to be part of another entertainment revolution.”
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