# Waterloo's Hive takes $27 million USD, and most of it isn't for Hive

> Frontier Growth leads a mostly secondary Series B in the profitable live-event marketing company, buying out its first institutional investor.

- Published: 2026-10-21T14:00:00.000Z
- By: The Circuit Staff
- Type: News
- Topics: Startups
- URL: https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-10-21-hive-series-b-frontier-growth/

Hive, the Kitchener-Waterloo company behind marketing software for concert venues and promoters, has raised a [$27-million USD Series B](https://betakit.com/live-event-marketing-tech-startup-hive-brings-on-frontier-growth-with-series-b/) (nearly $38 million CAD) led by Charlotte-based Frontier Growth.

Most of the money is secondary. It buys out Avenue Growth Partners, which led Hive's $7-million USD Series A in 2023. A small primary portion goes to product and sales. Frontier founding partner Andrew Lindner joins the board.

Hive connects fans' ticket-buying data to email, text, ads and CRM tools, and uses AI to automate the campaigns that sell more tickets. The numbers, per BetaKit:

- More than 1,600 venues, promoters and festivals as customers
- More than $1 billion USD in tickets sold through its tools
- Annual recurring revenue "well past" $10 million USD
- 75 employees, about 70% of them in Canada
- Around breakeven for years

Co-founders Ian Roberts and Patrick Hannigan started Hive as a ticketing business at the University of Waterloo in 2014 before pivoting. "This isn't a venture investment," Hannigan told BetaKit.

**Why it matters:** Canadian tech needs more companies like this: steady, near-profitable, Canadian-staffed, and able to give early investors a way out without a sale or IPO. It's a different path from the blitzscaling story, and a healthier one for many companies.