Baseball legend’s ticketing startup raises $20m

US baseball great Alex Rodriguez and his business partner Marc Lore have raised US$20 million in fresh funding towards their new ticketing and fan experience business Jump.

The startup, which was founded in 2020, plans to offer services across ticketing, e-commerce, content and event experiences, including a dynamic ticketing function that would enable fans to pay to relocate to a better available seat in the middle of an event.

“As Alex and I began exploring ownership opportunities with sports teams, we spoke to industry execs and began seeing first-hand how many teams were missing the mark when it came to their fan experience,” says Lore. “We quickly realised that there were so many untapped opportunities to rethink the entire fan journey.”

CEO and co-founder Jordy Leiser says the startup hopes to work with existing ticket sellers and “open up the industry with less exclusive deals”

As per Bloomberg, the latest funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures, with additional investors including Courtside Ventures, Will Ventures and Mastry Ventures, MetaLab and Drive by DraftKings, and takes total funding in the company to $30m.

CEO and co-founder Jordy Leiser, who says Jump is still “quarters away” from launching, adds that the funding will be spent on recruitment of engineers, product managers and data scientists.

The report adds that Leiser hopes to work with existing ticket sellers and “open up the industry with less exclusive deals”, while making live events “more personalised and less transactional”.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.