TodayTix is a digital ticketing platform for theatrical and cultural experiences. Founded by two Broadway producers, TodayTix’s free mobile apps for iOS and Android provide access to theater shows in New York City, London’s West End, Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Melbourne and Sydney in Australia.
History
Headquartered in New York City, the arts-meets-technology startup was founded in March 2013, by Broadway producers Brian M. Fenty and Merritt Baer. As of 2013, fewer than.1% of tickets for Broadway shows were being bought via smartphone apps or otherwise using mobile devices, according to The Broadway League - presenting a large opportunity for TodayTix to better make theater accessible to millennials. In July 2013, TodayTix received $582.5K in seed funding from Jeremy Zimmer and Link Ventures. A beta version of the app was released in September 2013 for customers with iPhones to test. Within three months the app had been used to buy tickets 50,000 times. The TodayTix app was officially launched in December 2013. In May 2014, the company received $1 million in an additional seed funding round from Rubicon Venture Capital, Ryan Rockefeller, Nicolas Jammet, and Jessica Verrilli. In November 2014, TodayTix announced its $5 million Series A financing from investors including Rubicon Venture Capital, TYLT Lab, Scott Birnbaum and SF Capital Group. As of mid-2015, TodayTix began "selling roughly 3 percent of all the tickets on Broadway". In June 2015, TodayTix launched in London's West End and began offering the first paperless tickets for shows in London's West End theatre district in August 2015. As of September 2015, 650,000 people had used TodayTix. In September 2018, TodayTix celebrated 5 years with a milestone of reaching $250 million in tickets sold. Following this anniversary, TodayTix launched an original content venture called "TodayTix Presents," that offers audiences first-look access to performances from their favorite artists debuting new work. In May 2019, TodayTix announced a growth equity investment of $73 million, led by Great Hill Partners, that allows the company to enter its next stage of growth that will focus utilizing the company’s proprietary data-driven audience feedback to offer new shows, arts and cultural experiences and double down on expanding its technologies in discovery and personalization for both consumers and partners.
Operations and products
TodayTix launched the first-ever mobile lotteries for theater tickets, both on Broadway and in London’s West End, selling discounted same-day tickets via lotteries conducted through its apps. Entrants can win up to two tickets for popular shows. In New York City, customers can either meet a red-shirted TodayTix concierge outside the theater or collect their tickets at the theater's box office on the same day as the show. Using the app, customers can select from a range of shows in Broadway, Off-Broadway, California, Chicago, Washington D.C., Connecticut, Boston, Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, or West End, and purchase tickets up to several months in advance or as close as a few hours before the show. For NYC tickets, TodayTix charges a reasonable fee for Off-Broadway and Broadway shows. Depending on the production and city, customers can either meet a TodayTix agent outside the theater who will give them their tickets until 30 minutes before the show's start time for an extra $5, or collect their tickets at the theater's box office on the same day as the show. Since launch, the company has built partnerships with more than 1,300 theater institutions globally. TodayTix’s partners in the U.S. and worldwide include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Public Theater, MSG Entertainment, Roundabout Theatre Company, American Museum of Natural History, Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, The Metropolitan Opera, BAM, The Shed, English National Opera, Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, LW Theatres, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Young Vic, SHN, Curran, National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, The Second City, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, LA Opera, Geffen Playhouse, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Opera Philadelphia, American Repertory Theater, AT&T Performing Arts Center, the Alley Theatre, Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet and Sydney Theatre Company.
