Andrew Dreskin’s new technology company Flymachine has closed a new funding round, generating $21 million in funding with a diverse collection of investors that includes Red Light manager founder Coran Capshaw, music mega manager Bill Silva, Wasserman Music executive Marty Diamond, agent Larry Webman, Bay Area promoter Another Planet Entertainment and Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons.
The Flymachine fundraising effort is just the latest in a large uptick in investments for new technology companies in the live entertainment space. On July 1, live-streaming startup Mandolin, led by chief executive Mary Kay Huse, announced that it had closed a $12 million Series A funding round. In December, festival ticketing technology company Lyte announced it had raised $33 million in Series B funding with Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital, music industry legend Quincy Jones and Rocketship VC buying into the company led by founder and chief executive Ant Taylor.
The increase in financing comes as the live entertainment industry prepares for a widespread return later this year. Flymachine, which describes itself as a virtual venue for live entertainment, is banking on fans continuing to spend on streaming and virtual experiences as part of a surge in hybrid events in the live sector.
“Virtual events have an opportunity to change the game for artists, promoters, and fans, but the technology that exists today is pretty underwhelming — videobox, paywall, and a bunch of scrolling nonsense; not exactly what one would call game-changing,” Dreskin said in a recent press release. “At Flymachine, we’re creating something different: a digital venue of the future, an art medium, and a social meeting place. It offers a level of depth, agency and social interactivity that hadn’t before existed. It’s a pretty cool way to check out a show remotely.”
Flymachine’s latest funding round was led by Greycroft Partners and SignalFire, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as WIRED magazine co-founding editor John Battelle and LionTree Partners. Flymachine plans to use the funding for hiring, expanding its network of venue partners and building out its digital events platform.
Dreskin is the co-founder of Ticketfly and TicketWeb. He co-founded Flymachine with chief experience officer Rick Farman of Superfly (which co-founded Bonnaroo and Outside Lands), chief technology officer Matthew Davis from music technology firm [namethemachine] and ATC Management. Since the public launch of the Flymachine platform in spring 2021, the company has hosted shows by Aaron Frazer, K.Flay, The Black Angels and Lion Babe and has exclusive venue agreements with Bowery Ballroom in New York City, Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, The Casbah in San Diego, The Crocodile in Seattle, Marathon Music Works in Nashville, Vogue Theatre in Vancouver and Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, among others.
