Robbie Williams-Backed Ticketing Startup Raises $4.9M to Open Live Events to Everyone

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-07

What if the hottest concert in town had empty seats, while thousands of nurses, teachers, and charity workers couldn't afford to be there? That's the frustrating reality Tickets for Good set out to fix, and now the UK startup is charging ahead with fresh funding to take its mission global. The company just raised $4.9 million (€4.5 million) to accelerate its international expansion and create 10 new jobs at its Sheffield headquarters over the next three years. It's a big vote of confidence in a simple but powerful idea: unused tickets should do some good. ### The Funding Details The round was led by NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. Shaping Impact Group (SI3), Finance Yorkshire, Leansquare, and several private investors also joined in. That's a solid mix of commercial investors and impact-focused backers, which makes sense given the company's dual mission. It wants to grow like any ambitious startup, but it also wants to make live events genuinely accessible to people who often get priced out. ### A Simple Idea With Massive Reach Steve Rimmer, CEO and co-founder, puts it plainly: "Tickets for Good was built on a simple belief that live events should be available to everyone, especially the people who give so much to our communities." He's not exaggerating about the impact. Since launching in 2022, the platform has: - Signed up nearly 750,000 verified members globally - Distributed over 1.25 million tickets to those who need them most - Doubled its revenue in 2025, with plans for five-fold growth in the next three years Rimmer and his co-founder Neville started with a shared love of music and a hunch that leftover tickets could be put to better use. Today, that hunch has helped more than a million people attend events they might otherwise have missed. ### How It Actually Works Event partners donate surplus tickets to the platform. From there, Tickets for Good distributes them to NHS workers, teachers, charity staff, and people receiving Cost of Living support. Recipients sign up for free and pay only a nominal transaction fee per ticket. The genius here is that everyone wins. Key workers get access to experiences they'd normally skip. Venues fill empty seats, drive ancillary revenue from concessions and parking, and build loyal audiences. It's a circular model that creates value on both sides. Chris Borrett, Investment Director at Mercia Ventures, sees real potential: "Demand for live experiences has never been stronger, however rising ticket prices are creating barriers to access for many consumers." He believes Tickets for Good could become a category-defining platform in the global live entertainment market. ### The Bigger Picture This funding isn't happening in a vacuum. Across Europe, investors are pouring money into event tech and fan experiences. Ghent-based Exhibitly just raised $1.5 million for its AI-powered event personalization platform. Warsaw's Microamp secured $7.1 million for connectivity. Lausanne's AlphaLum pulled in $3.9 million for immersive tech. And Amsterdam's Silverflow raised $40.3 million for payments infrastructure. Together, those rounds total roughly $54.5 million in recent funding for the sector. ### Ambassadors and Global Reach Tickets for Good has some notable names behind it. Robbie Williams serves as an ambassador, alongside former Dutch international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and music entrepreneur Hans Brouwer. That kind of star power doesn't hurt when you're trying to get venues and promoters on board. The company expanded into the US in 2023 through the Comcast SportsTech accelerator in St. Louis. It now also operates in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Dave Dirks, Managing Partner at Shaping Impact, sums up the appeal: "Tickets for Good is a strong example of the kind of company we want to support: commercially ambitious, highly scalable and built around a clear social purpose." Alex McWhirter, CEO of Finance Yorkshire, echoes that sentiment, noting how quickly the company has grown in a relatively short time. The live events industry is bouncing back hard, but affordability remains a real issue. Tickets for Good is proving there's a way to fill seats and do right by communities at the same time. With this fresh capital, the company is positioning itself to take that model far beyond the UK.