Eventbrite, the self-service ticketing web site, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from The European Founders Fund. While the company is already profitable, they plan to use the additional funds from The Samwer brother's investment firm primarily on rapid customer acquisition, specifically targeting the social networking space. In charge of that war chest is Jack Mardack, the company's recently appointed Director of Marketing, who I had an opportunity to speak with last week.
Eventbrite fills a niche between the Ticketmaster's of the world for large scale events like concerts and sporting events, and the alternative of setting up your own online ticketing system. Along those lines, the company is now setting its sights in part on helping powerful social networkers better monetize their following. For example, Mardack highlights recent events held by the likes of Seth Godin and Tim Ferris, who have used the service for both ticketing real-world events and online ones (virtual seminars, for example).
Furthering the push into social networking monetization will be integration with popular services, such as the feature Eventbrite offers for importing your LinkedIn contacts. The company will undoubtedly be closely watching developments with Data Portability and Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and MySpace Data Availability, all of which would make the process of creating real-world, for-pay events a lot easier for big-time social networkers.