Fan and ticketing data analytics and marketing optimization automation start-up FanSifter raised $300,000 in the pre-seed investment round and is the first Estonian start-up to join the leading music tech startups accelerator program Techstars Music Los Angeles.

„FanSifter is a machine learning-powered fan data analytics platform which helps music, entertainment, and sports events to sell more tickets thanks to powerful segmentation, profiling and enrichment tools,“ said FanSifter founder and CEO Aivar Laan, who has been active in the live events industry for the past 25 years. “The last 5 years of building value at the intersection of data-driven technologies and live events, gave birth to FanSifter based on our clients’ feedback and market insights,” described Laan.

He added that FanSifter does not only exists to tackle a large problem and inefficiency in the live events industry, but also helps users to save valuable marketing hours as the platform allows hyper-personalized communication of the right offer to the right audience. “This means events can now launch smarter campaigns by email, text, Facebook or Instagram and deliver more personalized experiences to fans. Everything is end-to-end trackable down to a granular fan profiles’ performance,” explained Laan emphasising that FanSifter employs AI across the platform.

FanSifter is also the first Estonian startup to join the 2020 class of the mentorship-driven accelerator program Techstars Music Los Angeles, the world’s leading music tech program run by Techstars in partnership with member companies Warner Music Group, SONY, Concord, Peloton, AVEX, Bill Silva Entertainment, RecoChoku, Royalty Exchange, Q Prime Management and Entertainment One.

The FanSifter’s team moved into the Techstars Music office in Los Angeles, where over the course of 13 weeks they are mentored by a 300 person-strong list of global music and tech executives, venture investors and global-scale artists. “Techstars Music Los Angeles is not a tech acceleration program like others. It is the singular best, bar none, for music and live events business, which has always been part of my DNA,” said Laan, adding that this opportunity is a fast track to the North American music and live events industry. Laan also noted that it is not an everyday thing to get personal time and advice from senior VPs and CxOs of the likes of Live Nation, AEG, Ticketmaster, Warner Music, Sony Music, Avex, , Disney, TikTok, or founders of Soundcloud, Splice, top tier US VC investors, or world-class artists in residence, like Jillionaire, D∆WN or Brad Delson from Linkin Park. “It is very humbling but also incredibly empowering,” noted Laan.

One of the lead investors in the pre-seed fundraising round Thomas Padovani, who is actively investing into different ventures through his investment company Bellone Invest, predicts huge success for FanSifter. “When choosing our next investments with Bellone Invest, we always strive for entrepreneurs that are solving real problems, this is what the market is always buying. FanSifter is offering a solution for which there is a gap in the market and that is beneficial for many verticals in events. Also, ticketing companies could benefit from their platform by learning how their customers act and how to target them better,” stated Padovani.

Furthermore, Thomas Padovani is committed to develop and mentor FanSifter’s technology team on proprietary technologies developed in-house by FanSifter. “With Adcash we focus on faster and more efficient digital tracking. Our senior technology team can most certainly contribute to making FanSifter’s tracking even more precise and effective,” noted Thomas Padovani.

Lead investors in the round were Techstars, Bellone Invest and Webinfluence Group, joined by Change Ventures Fund I and Siena Capital. FanSifter is targeting to raise up to $500,000 in this investment round.

Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Techstars founders connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies. Techstars accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,900 companies with a market cap of more than $25 Billion.

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Adcash founder Thomas Padovani was one of the investors who invested €600 000 through his investment company Bellone Invest into Estonian new startup ProcurementFlow, which aims to digitise procurement process with its cloud-based software and therefore turn the biggest cost function into a profit generator.

“Procurement is one of the most critical cost function of each company or public institution, which can cause production to stop, quality issues, performance issues and all lead to financial impact on the companies. The power of AI and the evolved knowledge about User interface management force all the industries to rethink themselves. There is room in many industries today for modernising the tools companies are using. ProcurementFlow is solving a real problem and participating to this modernisation process, that’s the reason why we investe in it,” said Padovani.

Innovating the future of procurement

ProcurementFlow is an Estonian Software as a Service (SaaS) provider that aims to digitise the entire procurement process and therefore not only bypass the frustration that comes with it, but also save money. CEO of ProcurementFlow Tarmo Saidla, who previously led the sourcing and supply chain analysis at the global industrial group ABB, said that sourcing and selecting goods involves usually many rounds of research, requests, negotiation and approval, which is a lot of room for miscommunication, misalignment and confusion. “Europe has about 30 000 manufacturers that tailor-make products based on customer requirements, and each purchase must go through a procurement process. On average 43 percent of all costs go through procurement function making it the biggest cost function for each company,” said Saidla. He stressed that with the new service companies not only save money but can also reduce time-to-market for new products and services as well as enable supplier-led innovation.

Contributing to the Estonian digital success story

After leaving the position of Adcash CEO Thomas Padovani has been actively investing to different ventures through his investment company Bellone Invest. The investment strategy is focused on yield generation and long-term investment performances. “When choosing our next investments, we always strive for entrepreneurs that are solving real problems, this is what the market is always buying : cost effective or yield generating solutions” explained Padovani. He stressed that investing to Estonian companies is close to his heart as considers Estonia to be his home. “I’m very proud of participating to the Estonian digital success story before with Adcash and now by helping promising ventures to grow. “ said Padovani. Bellone Invest has also invested in other Estonian companies like Natufia, Zlick, Modera. Padovani and Webinfluence Group are one of the first investors in the Estonian Unicorn Bolt.

The investment round for ProcurementFLow was led by Lemonade Stand, a new angel investment fund in Estonia together with well-known investors like Pipedrive co-founder Martin Henk, Bolt co-founder Martin Villig, Skeleton Technologies founders Taavi Madiberk and Oliver Ahlberg, Katana MRP co-founder Kristjan Vilosius and Stagnation Lab. In total the company raised €600,000 of funding.

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