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South African venture capital firm KNF Ventures has invested in online ticketing services startup Quicket, with the funding set to help the company expand into key African markets.

Launched in February of last year by Knife Capital, KNF Ventures is a SARS-approved section 12J fund with ZAR100 million (US$6.4 million) to invest in innovation-driven ventures with proven traction.

Its investment in Quicket will help the startup to streamline its service offering in the local market and focus on key markets in the rest of Africa. The cloud-based ticketing solution allows anyone to instantly start selling tickets their own event within minutes.

While it provides ticketing solutions to large-scale events and festivals, being user-friendly and self-managed allows Quicket to also cater for smaller event organisers.

“As more companies, festivals, adventure sports, schools and individuals opt to plan and manage their own local events and meetings, the need for event-related technologies will continue to grow,” said James Hedley, director of Quicket.

“Our cloud-based technology platform allows us to provide a seamless user experience – whether it is for larger events where event management support may be required or for smaller self-managed events.”

Quicket is one of the companies in Knife Capital’s year-long entrepreneurship development programme Grindstone.

“Quicket does not necessarily require funding as it currently almost doubles in revenue year-on-year off a decent base while being cash-flow positive,” said Keet van Zyl, investment partner at KNF Ventures.

“We admire the team’s bootstrap tenacity and strong positive company culture. Through Grindstone we’ve implemented a few strategic interventions together and realised that there is a good cultural fit and a considerable gap in the African ticketing space if we accelerate the growth of Quicket together.”

Quicket successfully began its African expansion strategy in 2016 by partnering with a local ticketing company in Uganda and executing events in Kenya. A significant portion of the KNF investment will be allocated to refining its solution and developing a scalable mobile ticket kiosk to establish a physical distribution network in Africa.

“We are extremely excited to have the experience of KNF’s investor base and Knife Capital’s track record of accelerating the growth of local SMEs on board,” said Hedley.

“KNF’s investment in Quicket comes at a time when strong digital customer engagement that links real-world experiences creates a competitive advantage for African businesses.”

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