fan3 Raises $5M from Improbable to Revolutionize Ticketing for Live Events

fan3, a London-based entertainment technology company, has successfully raised $5 million in funding from Improbable to tackle the long-standing issues in live event ticketing. Founded by Steve Finan, Paul Rose, and Ross Taylor, all veterans of the music industry with collective experience managing artists boasting over 150 million social media followers, fan3 is building a fan-first access platform designed to restore fairness, authenticity, and loyalty to the ticketing ecosystem.

Solving a Broken Ticketing System

The live entertainment industry faces persistent challenges:

Secondary market leakage: Around half of all tickets end up on resale platforms.
Bot interference: Automated buying bots increasingly snatch tickets within seconds.
Ineffective detection tools: Traditional anti-fraud measures now detect only a fraction of fraudulent purchases.

For fans, these issues lead to sold-out events and inflated resale prices, while artists lose visibility of their genuine audience. fan3 addresses these problems by serving as a gatekeeper, seamlessly integrating with major ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventim, and Etix, without altering the purchasing experience for genuine buyers.

How fan3 Works

At the core of fan3’s platform is a digital fan pass stored in a user’s phone wallet. This pass:

Grants priority access to presales
Acts as a defense against bots and scalpers
Secures authenticity using blockchain technology, recording fan identity and access without adding complexity
Extends to NFC-enabled wristbands at events, allowing attendance verification, unlocking exclusive experiences, and claiming digital rewards

By combining digital passes and physical wristbands, fan3 creates a bridge between live events and ongoing fan engagement, enhancing trust and loyalty while significantly reducing ticket fraud. The platform’s fraud prevention heuristics have already reduced secondary market leakage to under 5%, an 8.4-fold improvement over industry averages.

“Real fans don’t usually sell their tickets immediately, and we make sure they get them first,” said Ross Taylor, CEO of fan3.
“Improbable’s investment allows us to scale our technology and deepen integrations, so that artists can own their audiences directly, and fans can finally get fair access to the shows they love.”

Growth and Expansion Plans

The Series A funding will support:

Scaling technical capabilities
Expanding the team
Extending integrations with ticketing platforms and artist partners

fan3 aims to become the trusted, loyalty-driven gateway for live entertainment, reshaping the industry’s approach to fan access and event management.

“fan3 is directly addressing one of the most pressing challenges in the entertainment sector: ensuring trust between fans, artists, and platforms,” said Herman Narula, CEO of Improbable.
“It’s one of the clearest examples of how crypto can deliver real value by powering fairer and more transparent relationships.”