Other participating investors include Cocoon Capital, TinkBig Venture, and SPH Media Fund

Singapore-based events marketplace Hapz has raised S$680,000 (US$500,000) in a seed round led by Cocoon Capital, SPH Media Fund, Quest Ventures, TinkBig Venture and an angel investor.

It will use the newly-raised financing to grow its team and bring on board more merchants and event organisers in the region.

Hapz was founded by Kendrick Wong, who runs his own events consulting and organising company, and Lai Xin Chu, a cyber security expert.  

The duo share a passion for attending and organising events and sought to find a solution that could help individuals find the “best experiences in town and be the bridge between event goers and event organisers.”

“Organising an event is like setting up a successful new business every six months,” said Wong, stressing the need for event organisers to target the right audiences.

What sets Hapz apart from most events marketplaces is its ability to let users dictate the price of the events they wish to attend — as long as they fall within an acceptable price range.

“Hapz works with organisers to establish dynamic pricing. The pricing is based on multiple factors, including inventory, time to event, etcetera,” said Wong.

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He said that this pricing mechanism has received positive feedback from customers so far. “We have had feedback from our customers that they would not have gone for the event if they had not been able to get the tickets through the name your own price mechanism.”

Wong added that Hapz is also working on delivering other value-added services to its customers.

“The ‘name your own price’ concept is one of our differentiators but not the key one. we are focused on the entire customer experience, rather than just on the pricing mechanism as that could change with time,” said Wong. These include machine learning tools to understand users’ preferences so that Hapz can feed them with more relevant events and deals.

For the event organisers, Hapz provides them with data analytics such as user demographics and pricing data, allowing them to better tailor their events to the right crowd.

Since the platform launched in May 2017, Hapz has attracted over 8,500 sign ups. It has worked with large scale events such as Ultra Singapore and Dreamworks Day Asia. Hapz has also partnered with General Electric in Singapore to support the corporation’s employee benefits programme.

For now, Hapz will focus on five event categories —  concerts, attractions, sports, festivals, and performances.

Wong said Hapz is not looking to compete with ticketing platforms such as Peatix, but will, instead, work alongside them to complement their services.

“[Event organisers] would usually work with a primary ticketing partner and work with us at the same time as we’re not in the primary ticketing business – dealing with ticket fraud, on-ground ticket verification and even entry. We would prefer to let the experts deal with that,” he said.

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Image Credit: Hapz

 

 

 

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