
Get in the KNOW
on LA Startups & Tech
XTicket Platform Granted Launches As Live Events Emerge From Pandemic
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

The idea of launching a live event ticket platform during a global pandemic didn’t phase Shayma Hesari.
Hesari and Matt Ampolsky began working on the idea for an “experiential” ticket platform during the summer of 2020, when concerts and sporting events were cancelled en masse. But Hesari said they never doubted that fans would return to venues once it was safer to do so. In the meantime, they hired developers to build Granted, the Santa Monica-based ticketing platform that publicly launched Tuesday.
“There should have been a lot more concern, but I think we were just on a mission,” Hesari quipped. “Personally, I’m just a massive risk-taker when it comes to disruptive spaces.”
Granted, which soft-launched in February 2021, aims to disrupt the ticketing industry in a number of ways. Beyond selling tickets to shows, the startup offers fans VIP experiences such as meet-and-greets with artists and athletes, and hosts auctions that benefit a charity of a given talent’s choice. Granted also accepts cryptocurrency as payment and has minted NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, for athletes like NFL running back Saquon Barkley.
The company also announced Tuesday that it raised a $3 million seed investment from Ampolsky, who doubles as Granted’s co-founder and angel investor. (Ampolsky is an entertainment industry investor who also serves as CEO of Santa Monica-based events agency Confirmed360.) Among other things, the money will be used to grow the Granted’s seven-employee staff and build a marketplace where fans can resell tickets. Currently, the tickets offered on Granted are funneled from third-party companies used by ticket brokers.
Online ticket sellers were hammered during the early days of the pandemic; the industry saw a nearly 56% drop in revenue in 2020, according to market research firm IBISWorld. Yet online ticket sales showed signs of a rebound during the second half of last year, as vaccines rolled out and governments lifted restrictions. Ticketmaster, owned by Beverly Hills-based Live Nation, reported its highest-ever quarterly operating income in the third quarter of 2021, after posting a $197 million loss in the year-earlier period.
“I think [ticket retailers] will recover to the pre-pandemic levels—and probably even go higher, because people have been tied down so much,” according to Gerard Tellis, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. “But a lot depends on the intensity of COVID.”
Granted has generated nearly $500,000 in gross sales since soft-launching last year; it plans to triple that figure this year through the VIP partnerships it has lined up alone, Hesari said, including events with rapper The Kid LAROI and the actor Rotimi. Among others, Granted has previously worked with former Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal on an auction, and it offered VIP packages for last year’s boxing exhibition between retired ex-champion Floyd Mayweather and YouTuber-turned-fighter Logan Paul.
The company ultimately aims to develop a secondary ticket market that pays royalties to artists. Hesari noted that many artists make the bulk of their money through touring these days—and though many artists make a very healthy living that way, she added that the amount they collect from their events is smaller than you would think after ticketing agents and other third parties get their cut.
“It's really important for us to continue to make [artists] feel both motivated and empowered by their fans,” she said.
- USC Granted $15 Million For Tech Startup Incubator - dot.LA ›
- NFTs Could Change the Game for Artists and Creators - dot.LA ›
- Swoogo Events Software Startup Raises $20 Million Series B - dot.LA ›
- Snapchat Partners With Ticketmaster to Match Users to Local Concerts ›
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
This Week in ‘Raises’: Improvado Hauls $22M, Clearlake Launches $14B Fund
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
This week in “Raises”: A pair of Web3 platforms for gamers landed funding, as did a Manhattan Beach medical startup looking to bolster primary care via nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, a Santa Monica-based investment firm launched its seventh fund with more than $14 billion in dry powder.
Venture Capital
Improvado, a marketing data aggregation platform, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Updata Partners.
Web3 gaming platform FreshCut raised $15 million in funding led by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands and Republic Crypto.
Medical startup Greater Good Health raised $10 million in a funding round led by LRVHealth.
Joystick, a Web3 platform for gamers and creators, raised $8 million in seed funding.
Open source data protection company CipherMode Labs raised $6.7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors .
Mobile phone charging network ChargeFUZE raised $5 million in seed funding led by Beverly Pacific, TR Ventures, VA2, Jason Goldberg and Al Weiss.
Polygon, a startup aiming to better diagnose children with learning disabilities, raised $4.2 million in seed and pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital and Pear VC.
Pique, a virtual women's sexual health clinic, raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Maveron.
Psudo, a sneaker startup that utilizes recycled water bottles and 3D sublimation printing to create its shoes, raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by SternAegis Ventures.
Funds
Santa Monica-based investment firm Clearlake Capital Group raised $14.1 billion for its seventh flagship fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Kristin Snyder (kristinsnyder@dot.la).Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: New Head of Originals at Snap, New President at FaZe Clan
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
“Moves”, our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
***
FaZe Clan brought on Zach Katz as the gaming and media company’s new president and chief operating officer. Katz was previously the chief executive officer of the music tech investment fund Raised in Space Enterprises.
TikTok brand factory LINK Agency promoted Dustin Poteet to chief creative officer. Poteet was previously creative director at the firm.
Livestream shopping platform Talkshoplive hired Tradesy co-founder John Hall as its chief technology officer. Universal Music Group Nashville's former vice president of digital marketing, Tony Grotticelli, also joins the company as vice president of marketing.
Anjuli Millan will take over as head of original content at Snap after three years of overseeing production for the division.
Tech and media company Blavity hired Nikki Crump as general manager of agency. Crump joins the company from Burrell Communications Group.
O'Neil Digital Solutions, which provides customer communications and experience management for the health care industry, hired Eric Ramsey as national account sales executive. Ramsey joins from T/O Printing.
Investment firm Cresset Partners named Tammy Funasaki as managing director of business development. Funasaki previously served as head of investor relations for Breakwater Management.
- LA Tech Updates: Artie Closes $10M Seed Round; FaZe Clan Has a ... ›
- FaZe Clan Announces Immersive Pop-Up Shop - dot.LA ›
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Snapchat is preparing to roll out enhanced parental controls that would allow parents to see who their teenagers are chatting with on the social media app, according to screenshots of the upcoming feature.
Snap’s parental controls.
Courtesy of Watchful.
Snapchat is planning to introduce Family Center, which would allow parents to see who their children are friends with on the app and who they’ve messaged within the last seven days, according to screenshots provided by Watchful, a product intelligence company. Parents would also be able help their kids report abuse or harassment.
The parental controls are still subject to change before finally launching publicly, as the Family Center screenshots—which were first reported by TechCrunch—reflect features that are still under development.
Santa Monica-based Snap and other social media giants have faced mounting criticism for not doing more to protect their younger users—some of whom have been bullied, sold deadly drugs and sexually exploited on their platforms. State attorneys general have urged Snap and Culver City-based TikTok to strengthen their parental controls, with both companies’ apps especially popular among teens.
A Snap spokesperson declined to comment on Friday. Previously, Snap representatives have told dot.LA that the company is developing tools that will provide parents with more insight into how their children are engaging on Snapchat and allow them to report troubling content.
Yet Snap’s approach to parental controls could still give teens some privacy, as parents wouldn’t be able to read the actual content of their kids’ conversations, according to TechCrunch. (The Family Center screenshots seen by dot.LA do not detail whether parents can see those conversations).
In addition, teenage users would first have to accept an invitation from their parents to join the in-app Family Center before those parents can begin monitoring their social media activity, TechCrunch reported.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.