Square Takes $25M Stake In Eventbrite

Square, the payment processing company, has partnered with Eventbrite, the event ticketing service, and will make an investment in the company.

According to news from Bloomberg, Square is putting $25 million into the startup, which lets organizers of events sell tickets, promote their events and manage who attends. Some of Eventbrite’s customers, according to the report, include the Tribeca Film Festival and Maker Faire.

The event ticketing service says it processes two million to three million tickets sales per week and predicts it will facilitate more than $4 billion in ticket sales in 2017 alone. Under partnership terms, Square will be in charge of online, mobile and in-person payments in countries that the payment processor is operational.

“Online is a natural extension of Square because its offline retail clients are online also,” said David Ritter, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in the report. “Everyone is competing in everyone’s territory now. If you’re online, you’re dipping in offline and vice versa.”

The deal between the two companies enables Eventbrite users to analyze sales data without having to look at different sources — be it online or offline ticket sales. Users of Eventbrite can still process payments through the company’s internal system, but now online, mobile and in-person transactions from customers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. will be processed through Square. Users will still be able to pay via PayPal, noted the report.

While the move is in line with Square’s main business, the payment processing company is also eyeing new areas for growth. According to a report in late June, CEO and Co-Founder Jack Dorsey has begun quietly circulating word among its SMB customers that it is willing to provide credit to their customer base. The SMB consumer lending pivot builds off Square’s recent prepaid debit release and moves the company into more direct competition with the likes of PayPal, Affirm and Synchrony Financial.