Hive, the Kitchener-Waterloo company behind marketing software for concert venues and promoters, has raised a $27-million USD Series B (nearly $38 million CAD) led by Charlotte-based Frontier Growth.
Most of the money is secondary. It buys out Avenue Growth Partners, which led Hive’s $7-million USD Series A in 2023. A small primary portion goes to product and sales. Frontier founding partner Andrew Lindner joins the board.
Hive connects fans’ ticket-buying data to email, text, ads and CRM tools, and uses AI to automate the campaigns that sell more tickets. The numbers, per BetaKit:
- More than 1,600 venues, promoters and festivals as customers
- More than $1 billion USD in tickets sold through its tools
- Annual recurring revenue “well past” $10 million USD
- 75 employees, about 70% of them in Canada
- Around breakeven for years
Co-founders Ian Roberts and Patrick Hannigan started Hive as a ticketing business at the University of Waterloo in 2014 before pivoting. “This isn’t a venture investment,” Hannigan told BetaKit.
Why it matters: Canadian tech needs more companies like this: steady, near-profitable, Canadian-staffed, and able to give early investors a way out without a sale or IPO. It’s a different path from the blitzscaling story, and a healthier one for many companies.
