Octopus et al. inject $24m into YPlan

New investor Nokia Growth Partners also took part in the round.

The fresh capital will enable the company to invest in geographic expansion and product development, including social media integration, increased personalisation and the roll-out of a real-time event review service.

The investors cited the company's growth and development over the past two years as the motivation behind their continued backing.

Despite the new investment, the company is set to move away from a direct sales model towards a self-service events marketplace, according to TechCrunch. As a result of the move the company is reportedly set to cut its headcount, with the New York office slashing its number of employees to just four by the end of 2014; down from a peak of 20.

Earlier this month YPlan signed a three-year partnership agreement with London's O2, the venue that hosts events including live concerts, tennis events such as ATP World Tour Finals, WWE wrestling and NBA basketball matches.

Previous investment
Octopus and Wellington first backed the company in November 2012, providing $1.7m as part of a seed financing round. The following year, General Catalyst Partners led a $12m series-A funding round for YPlan alongside existing investors Wellington Partners and Octopus Investments.

Company
Headquartered in London and founded in November 2012, YPlan is an app offering users last-minute access to entertainment events. The business, which stated it has enjoyed 300% growth this year, has additional offices in New York and San Francisco. The app has been downloaded 1.5 million times.

People
Frederic Lardieg is principal at Octopus. Adam Valkin is managing director at General Catalyst. Rytis Vitkauskas is co-founder and CEO of YPlan, while Viktoras Jucikas is the company's co-founder and CTO.

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Technology
• UK / Ireland
• United Kingdom
• Octopus Investments
• Wellington Partners