It is with huge relief and a dash of euphoria that I announce our Series A investment round of US$3M, led by Fidelity Growth Partners Japan. Also participating in the round are 500 Startups, Itochu Technology Ventures, Draper Nexus Ventures, Digital Garage, ZenShin Capital and other wonderful investors. And David Milstein of Fidelity will be joining our board so that he can coerce me into joining him at the driving range. Just kidding—none of us actually play golf. Sorry David!

Seeing so many startups gleefully announcing their series A rounds and hearing critics warn us about the “Series A Crunch,” I only imagined that concluding the round would have me flipping cartwheels…but this was not the case. I’m happy, don’t get me wrong, but every funding round leads to a new set of promises, aspirations and goals. The hurdle just gets higher.

Our good friend Dave McClure of 500 Startups summarized this sentiment in a note he sent me, which went something like “congrats…off to the next (expletive) mountain.” I don’t remember if he had really inserted the expletive, but that’s how I hear it in my head, and anyway he most probably did since he’s Dave. So we shall move on to the next (expletive) mountain with (expletive) gusto and vigor.

And so what is this mountain? It’s actually more like a mountain range, and it consists of:

Continuing to empower events
Although we are unmistakably a tech startup, the beautiful thing about what we do is how it endeavors to enable and encourage offline human interaction—an oft scarce commodity in the age of digitization. Through the act of rendering online event organization as pleasurable and affordable as we know how, we hope that someone somewhere will offer a seminar, meetup or yacht party they normally wouldn’t, or that more souls will take advantage of educational or partyboat-oriented opportunities.

Going international
The pea has landed from the land of the rising sun upon the lands of, um…well I’m not sure if the United States and Singapore have any country-applicable catchphrases…but we are in both of those lands now! With a service and fees that are respectively better and lower than what is currently available, we thought more of the world deserved a little piece of the pea. About the ticketing fees: our offer is 2.5% + $0.99/order in the US, and 2.9% + SG$0.99/order in Singapore…and this is all inclusive. No extra registration or credit card fees sinisterly lurking within the fine print, and this is not on top of what you pay to PayPal or Google Checkout—it’s all you ever have to pay.

Building a company, dammit!
The world needs better places to work (it’s true—just go on Glassdoor and sort companies rated low to high—makes for a fun read), and we are fully committed to being one of those places, complete with the integrity, openness and vigorous innovation which are signatures of all great companies. From here we are going to continue our benevolent, worldwide conquer-fest while also having fun. We now have offices in Tokyo, NYC and Singapore—take a look through AngelList for our open positions, and do apply if you want to be a part of the journey.

Last but not least, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful employees in Tokyo, New York and Singapore, as well as our families and friends. Without you we would not be where we are today, and could not move forward into tomorrow.

Oh, and if you’re thinking of holding an event on PeaTiX for the first time, please contact me, and if your event meets certain terms, I, Taku Harada, will give you 0% in ticketing fees. I kid you not. Go ahead, try me: CrazyCEO@peatix.com

—Taku Harada, Co-founder & CEO

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