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From a ticket sales service to a Swiss knife of event platforms
Liveto was born in 2014 from Antti Korhonen’s desire to improve the common operations in the event industry. The first business area chosen was ticket sales, which had long been dominated by larger players. Liveto team strongly believed that its open-minded attitude, agility and modern digital solutions would be a welcome addition to the field. Liveto event management system started to get traction amongst customers.
When the need to digitalize surfaced, Sofokus Ventures joined the company as an investor and produced a customized digital platform solution for Liveto. The starting point was to revolutionize the ticket sales business with a new kind of self-service, but it was quickly realized that stronger competitive factors and the opportunity for higher value returns were needed.
The business concept was refined into a broader perspective, with event sales seen as an ecosystem of various pre-sold services and events. This was combined with self-channel thinking and the event store Dropshop®, which can be easily brought to the event website. The idea was to direct end customers to the organizers’ own online channels instead of the traditional ticketing service model.
The combination worked, and between 2018 and 2020, Liveto grew steadily until the pandemic hit with force. When physical events were banned with Covid19 restrictions, almost all revenue was lost within a few weeks. However, the company was once again able to adapt to the changed market situation by developing activities suitable for streaming and virtual events. At the same time, it was discovered that the platform was now also able to serve the needs of B2B event organizers. Liveto had grown into a comprehensive event platform for live, virtual and hybrid events.
During the eventful journey, Liveto’s headcount has grown and the company has become fully self-sufficient in terms of technical development. The role of Sofokus Ventures has changed to participate in advisory rounds. During the fiscal year 2022, Liveto has predicted it will break the turnover limit of one million euros.
“Liveto has grown by 30-100% every year. It seems that we have now found the perfect market for the product, so we believe that the strong growth will continue,” says Antti Korhonen, CEO.
Liveto is a growth company from Jyväskylä that has developed during 2020 from an event sales platform to a full-service event platform. Liveto event management system provides a comprehensive platform including key tools for implementing live, virtual and hybrid events. Liveto’s mission is to help event organizers succeed internationally.