A Brief History of Eventbrite

Eventbrite was founded in 2006 by Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz, and Renaud Visage. Kevin Hartz, who was previously involved with PayPal and co-founded the money transfer company Xoom Corporation, serves as Eventbrite’s Co-Founder and Executive Chairman. Julia Hartz, Kevin’s wife, was raised in Santa Cruz, CA. After studying broadcasting at Pepperdine University, she worked as a creative executive at FX Network in Los Angeles. 

Soon after she and Kevin became engaged, Julia moved to the Bay Area and helped co-found Eventbrite. On March 18, 2011, Eventbrite raised $50 million in Series E financing led by Tiger Global. On April 22, 2013, the company raised another $60 million in growth capital financing led by Tiger Global, with participation from T. Rowe Price. On March 13, 2014, Eventbrite raised $60 million more in a private equity round. 

Most recently, on September 1, 2017, Eventbrite raised $134 million in a Series G funding round, bringing their total funding raised to $334 million over the years from firms including Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, and Tenaya Capital.

Expanding its services, Eventbrite acquired the Los Angeles-based social media marketing company ToneDen in November 2020. Then, last fall, likely September or October 2023, Eventbrite overhauled its pricing plans. They eliminated the option for completely free services for large-scale free events. Instead, they instituted a limit of 25 free tickets before fees would be charged for their services. Any events with over 25 free tickets would now incur fees under the new pricing model implemented by Eventbrite.