Tacos. Thirsty. Covfefe.
That's the current mood over at Everfest, straight from the horse's mouth.
“But really, I feel like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders and that the future is officially looking bright,” said the company's co-founder and CEO, Jay Manickam.
The occasion? The Austin startup, which feeds festival lovers online with events and discounts, completed a $3.6 million Series A today.
Local VC ATX Seed Ventures and Live Nation Entertainment co-led the round, which also saw participation from Red Frog Events (Firefly Music Festival), Chip Conley (Airbnb, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Burning Man) and Bob Kagle (Benchmark Capital).
While the team celebrates the new funding from all the investors — which they've aptly deemed a “Series Heeeey” — Manickam said having an Austin investor was the cherry on top.
“We have worked with ATX Seed Ventures through our seed round and have a great relationship with Chris Shonk, their GP,” said Manickam. “Many of the investors are highly experienced and successful entrepreneurs and operators so it’s a very powerful local network. And with Live Nation being our perfect large strategic investor, we think we now have the best of both worlds.”
The funding will be used to expand the team across product, development and marketing operations in order to scale the Everfest Premium program, which offers exclusive experiences and discounts from over 100 existing partnering festivals.
Although being a festie devotee is no pre-req in joining the Everfest family, Manickam said he and his team do ask candidates about their festival experiences.
“We’ve gotten some, shall we say, interesting responses — it’s kinda a dangerous question!” said Manickam. “We, of course, don’t require that everyone be the world’s biggest festie, but we do want to make sure everyone has that curiosity to explore new experiences. We also like to have a good mix in terms of what type of festivals people like — we cover the whole spectrum, so it’s not just all about big music festivals.”
Funds will also be directed toward adding more international festivals and events to the platform, which Manickam said make up about 10 percent of the website’s database of 16,000 festivals.
Thanks to the funding, Everfest fans can look forward to more discounts, more festivals, more opportunities to join the team and maybe, just maybe, an Everfest-hosted festival.
“Hosting a festival is another thing we’ve certainly discussed,” said Manickam. “I’m not sure the world is ready for the legend of The Everfest quite yet, though.”
Image provided by social media.
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