Zac Leigh was locked out of a Tame Impala gig. Now he’s raised $8m

Zac Leigh was locked out of a sold-out Tame Impala gig at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl when he came up with his multimillion-dollar idea for a technology start-up.

Leigh and his future co-founder, Jason Webb, had paid $400 for fraudulent tickets that wouldn’t scan at the gate. They’d been scammed.

Kevin Parker, on stage at Rod Laver Arena with Tame Impala.Credit: Rick Clifford

Fuelled by a deep sense of frustration, the pair decided to do something about it. Now, a decade later, their ticket resale start-up, Tixel, has raised $8 million to drive its expansion across the US and the UK. The start-up has not disclosed its current valuation.

Tixel’s platform offers a safe marketplace for ticket buying and reselling and uses technology to verify that the tickets – and their sellers – are legitimate.

Since its founding in 2017, the Melbourne-based Tixel has racked up nearly two and a half million registered users globally, and it grew by 100 per cent year-on-year in November. The start-up doesn’t act as a primary ticket seller, instead facilitating resales by letting users upload their PDF tickets.

This week’s $8 million fundraise is part of what Tixel CEO Leigh says is a plan to ape the success of Canva and Atlassian and make a big splash in the US market.

Tixel co-founders Zac Leigh, Jason Webb, and Denis Mysenko.Credit: Will Afonczenko

“Ultimately, we are building the world’s most trusted live event marketplace,” Leigh said.

“There’s still a lot more work to do but we certainly have ambitions to really shake things up in the market.”

Tixel’s platform combats ticket scalping and resale abuse by capping resale prices. The company says it has seen a “huge issue” with sophisticated scalpers trying to take advantage of high-demand events such as Taylor Swift’s Australian tour.

“It’s a bit of a game of whack-a-mole where a lot of these ticket scalpers have become more sophisticated,” Leigh said.

“When there’s a hot ticket, or a hot commodity, it’s always going to create conditions for people to try and take advantage of them.

But we don’t really experience that activity on our platform because they can’t make money.”

Tixel’s fundraise comes amid a tumultuous time for the local live music industry, which has benefited from bumper tours from Taylor Swift and Coldplay but also been hit by festival closures over the past 12 months. Groovin The Moo, Splendour In The Grass and Spilt Milk each cancelled their events this year, while Bluesfest also announced that this year’s event would be its last.

For Leigh, those cancellations are part of a cyclical moment for festivals, which he is confident will bounce back.

“There are good signals for next year that it’s going to be a much better year for festivals globally,” he said.

Tixel has also released a report finding that despite cost-of-living pressures continuing to bite, live music remains a priority for many Australians.

Fifty-six per cent of event-goers consider live music a priority, while two-thirds of people attend the same or more events than last year.

Tixel hopes to use the fresh funds to ramp up its overseas efforts. One key investor involved in the capital raising is ASX-listed Touch Ventures, a spin-off of buy now, pay later giant Afterpay. Touch Ventures director Glenn Poswell will join the Tixel board as part of the investment.

Tixel’s other financial backers include Alberts, Aura Group, Lalotte Ventures and Side Stage Ventures.

Jaddan Comerford started Unified Music Group in 2002 as a record label, now he’s investing in start-ups like Mr Yum and Pushas.Credit:

Venture partner Side Stage Ventures, Jaddan Comeford, founder and CEO of independent record label Unified, said Tixel has introduced a much-needed level of credibility to the ticket resale market.

“Their focus on fairness and trust have transformed the industry, ensuring fans can access tickets securely while minimising exploitation,” he said.

“Broadly speaking, the Australian live music industry is in a good place. It’s been a wild ride since 2020 and the festival space is heating back up. The touring scene is vibrant, with acts like Tones and I and The Amity Affliction selling out arenas, while artists at all levels are packing venues.

Government support has played a key role in helping the industry recover, and continued investment and policy backing will be essential to address ongoing challenges and sustain this momentum. There’s plenty of reason for optimism.”

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