Festicket has raised $2.7 million from a group of investors including Wellington Partners and PROfounders Capital.

The London-based startup, which specialises in travel arrangements for music festivals, plans to invest the Series A round to expand internationally with the US as the first target.

It is also seeking to increase the current headcount of 21 by about a third with rolls to fill across the product and development departments as well as a travel industry insider to help it form strategic partnerships.

Chief executive Zack Sabban says it has already signed a deal with a UK-based youth travel specialist.

Part of the strategy for growth is also based around increasing the number of repeat customers, currently about 20/25%, through the development of a recommendation algorithm to be released in the coming months.

Festicket is also hoping for further organic growth through content optimisation as well as social features such a group payment sharing service with incentives for the more people you invite.

It is also exploring white-label opportunities to provide its travel platform to festival organisers.

Festicket received seed funding of $680,000 in early 2013 from Playfair Capital and Windcrest Partners who have also participated in this latest round.

The company claims an 800% increase in turnover in the past year.

Original author: Linda Fox