Event Ticketing Platform Gets Funding Boost

A locally developed event ticketing platform, Tick­etMax, has received much-needed funding from the Govern­ment to build a native mobile app for both Android and Apple.

TicketMax’s founder George Fong was awarded a $30,000 grant via the Ministry of Trade’s Young Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) in a handover yesterday.

“Fiji is moving towards a digital economy, not just using technol­ogy, but aiming for progress; and as your Government, we are com­mitted to creating a future that is stronger, fairer and better for eve­ryone,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Ka­mikamica said during the grant handover ceremony at the minis­try headquarters in Suva.

“This effort goes beyond just funding, it canvasses how well our assistance contributes to the well-being and development of our society, and as the Minister re­sponsible for SMEs and Commu­nications, I am confident that the development of online platforms such as TicketMax will help Fiji pave the way for economic pros­perity.”

Mr Fong launched TicketMax in February this year to deliver an easy, efficient, and safe way for local organisers to set up and sell tickets for events online.

“In Fiji, the process of ticketing has been a very manual process and there weren’t many options for our local organisers,” Mr Fong said.

“TicketMax Fiji is the first and only 100 per cent local event tick­eting platform, designed and built here for our unique context.

“Any organiser can sign up and register their organisation and event for free.”

Within 10 months of operation, the platform processed and issued more than $250,000 in ticket sales for over 40 successful events and many of the country’s top brands.

Since launching, Mr Fong and his team also introduced new fea­tures, including an interactive, visual seating chart that allows users to select and book their pre­ferred seats.

Mr Kamikamica said the YES programme funded 14 recipients and invested over $300,000 in grants to promising local entre­preneurs with innovative busi­ness ideas.

“Collectively, we have $2.6 mil­lion in grant funding available at the ministry and we have already received a total of $4.7 million from 1450 applicants within a space of 4 months,” Mr Kamikam­ica said.

“For this reason, we need to find more innovative solutions, just like what George has embarked on, to meet the financing gap.”

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