Picatic

Picatic operated as a registration and ticketing platform for event organizers, establishing itself as a notable player in the Canadian tech scene before its acquisition. The company was founded in 2008 by Jayesh Parmar, with some sources also listing Brett Ede and James Sapara as co-founders. The inspiration for the company came from Parmar's personal experience of the difficulty in collecting money for a group trip to a football game, highlighting the need for a simple online solution for small event ticketing.

The company's journey began in Saskatoon, later expanding with a headquarters in Vancouver and offices in Toronto, San Francisco, and New York. Picatic secured $200K in seed funding in 2012 and was selected for accelerator programs like Extreme Startups and the Canadian Technology Accelerator in New York, which were pivotal for its growth. A significant milestone in the company's trajectory was its acquisition by the global event technology platform Eventbrite in August 2018. Following the acquisition, CEO Jayesh Parmar and the Vancouver-based team joined Eventbrite to continue their work and expand their impact on the Canadian market.

Picatic provided a suite of tools for event creators to design, manage, and promote their events. Its business model evolved over time; initially, it featured a crowdfunding-like option for promoters to gauge interest and secure funds before booking an event, though this was later discontinued. The company also experimented with a "pay what you want" model before settling on a freemium structure. This model eliminated service fees for free tickets and offered Basic and Pro payment options for paid events, with revenue generated through commissions on for-profit ticket sales. A key part of its offering was a powerful API that allowed developers to integrate ticketing and registration functionalities directly into their own websites and applications, a feature that provided significant value to its clients.

Keywords: Picatic, Jayesh Parmar, event ticketing platform, event registration, online ticketing, Eventbrite acquisition, Canadian startup, event management software, ticketing API, event crowdfunding, freemium ticketing, event technology, James Sapara, Brett Ede, Vancouver tech, Saskatoon startup, Extreme Startups, live events, ticket sales, event promotion