The Story of Spektrix
Today, Spektrix is leading the way in ticketing, marketing, fundraising, and CRM across the cultural sector, with 800+ organisations and 22,000 users across the world.
This is our story.
Same Spektrix. New era.
2026
We revisit our brand to better represent our scale, impact, and continued commitment to the sector. From our website to our user interface, Spektrix looks and feels a little different – while who we are, and why we do what we do, remains unchanged.
Hello, Australia & New Zealand!
2025
Following positive conversations at Ticketing Australia 2024, we commit to launching Spektrix in Australia and New Zealand. Two team members move out to Melbourne, and our first clients are live in Australia before the end of the year.
2023–2025
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Spektrix Community moves online
2025: The Spektrix Community launches online, creating a dedicated space for users to learn, connect, and share ideas or challenges whenever they’re in need of a friendly conversation.Spektrix Community -
Theatre Manager users join Spektrix
2024: When Canada-based ticketing company Theatre Manager winds up operations, they recommend Spektrix as the right next step for their clients. Over 100 theatres and arts organisations see the benefit of a tech partner committed to their long-term success, making this our fastest-ever year for growth and positioning us as market leader for the events industry in Canada.Spektrix in Canada -
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
New flex pass tools
2023: The launch of Ticket Subscriptions brings ease and flexibility for users already selling flexible season passes. For others, it introduces a new way to think about loyalty, offering greater flexibility to audiences and membership teams.Subscriptions in Spektrix
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600+
organisations across the world are working with Spektrix
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200
in the US and Canada
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400
in the UK and Ireland
A growing team of experts
2022
54 new team members join in 2022, all working to develop the system and support users worldwide. Initiatives to continue building and strengthening a strong, diverse team include a hybrid approach to work, financial assistance to manage the cost of living crisis, new resources to promote good mental health support, a range of employee affinity groups, and assistance with individual financial planning.
Investment in our future
2022
Investment from Norland Capital, and additional finance from Foresight Group, accelerates the development of our system and service. Norland Capital supports only mission critical cloud-based software businesses delivering to niche industries, and as such they share our commitment to the long term success of our company and our users, as well as the continual development of our product, support and values.
Connected solutions for success
2022
The Spektrix Partner Directory makes it easier for users to connect with consultants, technology providers and web developers who understand and integrate with our software. A growing range of integrated partner products includes new solutions for event streaming, point of sale systems and dynamic pricing.
2021
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Twice the engineering capacity
2021: We double the size of our engineering team for the second year running, ensuring we can continue to invest in the speed and security of our platform as well as adding new features. This capacity and expertise will ensure our software continues to meet the needs of the sector – not just today, but in 10 and 20 years’ time.
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Hybrid is here to stay
2021: We move to a permanent hybrid working model with bases in London, New York, and Manchester. Many team members choose to work from home, but our offices remain open and we continue creating regular opportunities to connect in person.
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Connecting our community
2021: Having established a successful programme of online training, roundtables and webinars during the pandemic, we continue to support users through 80+ online events delivered throughout the year – alongside our first in-person gathering since 2019.
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Ideas for inclusive recruitment
2021: Rethinking Recruitment captures our learning around the recruitment process, to help other organisations attract a wider, more diverse pool of candidates.
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60+ experts to support your team
2021: Client facing teams continue to grow their capacity, focussing on direct, expert support for Spektrix users. A new Support Analyst role is created to streamline responses to user queries, whilst specialist teams support fundraising, web integrations, training and support resources, consultancy and more. Our commitment to user success means this remains an inclusive part of our offer – there’s never any additional charge for Spektrix users to access practical or strategic support, training or consultancy.
2020–2021
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A certified B Corporation
2021: Spektrix becomes the first ticketing provider to be certified as a B Corporation, demonstrating our commitment to using business as a force for good. As a B Corp, we join a growing international community of successful, mission-led business who voluntarily hold themselves to a higher standard than legally required in terms of their stakeholders, teams, and environment. -
Infinite server capacity
2021: A multi-year project migrates our entire platform from our own physical infrastructure to Microsoft Azure cloud. By passing the management of our servers onto expert providers, we gain almost infinite capacity to meet demand, and free up time for our engineering team to focus on what only they can do – developing Spektrix to meet users’ needs. -
Rebuilding and recovery
2020: We receive further investment from existing shareholders along with UK government-backed support through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, helping us resume recruitment and maintain our support for the sector despite the dramatic impact of Covid across our community.
Supporting the sector during Covid-19
2020
The Covid-19 pandemic impacts the live events sector across the globe. It’s soon clear it will be a tough time for our users and – since our revenue is largely based on ticket sales – for Spektrix as well. We hold our nerve and continue to build our system as planned, despite the challenges that face us.
The Spektrix Ticket Converter Tool is released to our users and the wider sector within days of the first lockdowns. The tool makes it easy for organisations to ask audiences to donate all or part of the value of cancelled tickets, and to manage those donations, saving more than £1m of lost income for the sector by late spring.
We continue adapting to meet organisations’ changing priorities, developing integrations with online streaming partners, creating tools to manage socially distanced seating, and offering practical and wellbeing support for stretched teams. Many organisations take advantage of the enforced pause to switch systems, recognising Spektrix as the right solution to help them regroup and rebuild.
The furlough scheme in the UK, and the equivalent PPP in the US, helps us through periods of closure, and we’re grateful to team members for their flexibility and continued commitment to our business and community.
Magic Mike Live
2018–2020
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400+
organisations across the world are working with Spektrix
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100
in the US and Canada
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300
in the UK and Ireland
Barbican
Barbican
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The Barbican Centre joins Spektrix
2020: The Barbican Centre in London, Europe’s largest arts centre, sells over 1m tickets each year across a theatre, concert hall, cinemas and a gallery. Their decision to move from an in-house system to Spektrix demonstrates their trust in our platform and expertise, and in true-cloud based solutions as the most secure and reliable software choice for large and complex organisations.
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Spektrix Conference 2019
2019: The UK and Ireland conference is our largest ever gathering of almost 600 users and partners. A day of discussion about technology, audiences and agile working ends with an inspiring keynote by Jess Thom, highlighting the importance of accessibility in widening and diversifying audiences.
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Delivering our ambitions
2018: For 12 years Spektrix grew organically, with no external funding. Now Michael and the board agree that investment will help achieve their ambitions for growth and impact across the sector, and welcome investment from Foresight Group. Their evergreen funds – with no fixed timescale for a return – enable continued investment to futureproof our software and service.
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Matt steps aside
2018: Matt Scarisbrick decides to step aside from Spektrix to pursue his work as a software engineer, whilst co-founder Michael Nabarro remains as CEO to continue building their shared vision.
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Boldly compliant
2018: GDPR comes into effect across the UK and Europe. Realising the scale and challenge this presents, our toolkit for the sector leads the way in advocating for legitimate interest as the basis for data processing. Our resource and events support numerous professionals across the sector as they adapt their working practices to safeguard customer data.
Now we are 10
2017
Cake and bubbles mark ten years of Spektrix, with celebrations across our three home cities.
2014–2016
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Expanding across the UK
2016: 200 organisations are now using Spektrix across the UK and Ireland. A few recent adopters include the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, Sheffield Theatres in South Yorkshire, and Opera North in Leeds, one of the first in a new trend of touring companies looking to manage their own ticketing. -
Early benchmarks for ticketing
2015: The first Spektrix Benchmark Report helps track trends in ticket sales across the sector. Three editions, published from 2015 – 2019, highlight the huge growth in online ticket sales, point of sale donations and mobile device adoption across our expanding user base. Sector-wide interest in this data inspires us to ensure that these reports, and future resources, are made widely available to cultural organisations, no matter what system they’re using. -
New York, New York…
2014: We open our first US office in midtown Manhattan, creating a base for our first two North American team members to support and connect with the sector across the US and Canada.
Dedicated fundraising features
2014
The Opportunities interface introduces a whole new section of Spektrix, with powerful, integrated development tools added to existing marketing and ticketing features. This joined up approach becomes central to our offer, giving organisations a single, 360-degree view of all customer behaviours and removing the labour, cost and risk of running multiple CRM systems.
Spektrix USA!
2014
Spektrix launches in the US and Canada. Our earliest users include Actor’s Express, Georgia; New York Theatre Workshop; and Factory Theatre, Ontario.
Growth in the US proves more challenging than we initially anticipated. It’s tricky to establish shared values with team mates 3,000 miles apart, and there’s a lot to learn about the differing priorities of venues and teams – from flex passes to fundraising needs. Over several years, we build ever-closer connections between both team mates and users overseas, helping to exchange good business practices, share knowledge and build an increasingly global view of success.
2010–2014
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
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Moving north
2014: We open a second UK office in Manchester, making it easier to connect with users across Scotland and northern England.
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A 100-user milestone
2013: 100 organisations are now using Spektrix across the UK and Ireland – including ARC in Stockton-on-Tees, Clywd Theatre Cymru in Wales, and Derry Playhouse in Northern Ireland. B: Music in Birmingham is our largest user organisation so far, selling half a million tickets each year across an exciting, multi-venue programme.
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Fully connected emails
2012: Dotdigital – then known as Dotmailer – becomes our fully connected email marketing partner. It’s a hit with users from day one thanks to its user-friendly design tools, and provides a huge increase in the efficiency and security of mailings – rather than downloading and uploading lists between systems, it becomes possible to segment and send campaigns within Spektrix at the click of a button.
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The Dude is born!
2012: We know that some of our longstanding users and team members still have a special affection for early branding – so here he is, for one last visit.
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Acknowledged for innovation
2011: Within five years of its launch, Spektrix is increasingly recognised as an innovator and influencer in the ticketing market. New, user-friendly solutions for segmentation, offers, reporting and web integration, as well as extensions to our API, are transforming box office practices. This growing feature set attracts increasingly influential users including the Royal Court Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre in London.
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First user conference
2010: Spektrix users assemble at the Bush Theatre in London to talk about best practice, technology and innovation in ticketing and marketing – the first of many in-person gatherings and conferences that continue in our thriving events programme today.
Taking responsibility for users' data
2009
We complete our first live data migration for Sutton Theatres. This becomes a core element of our offer – rather than asking organisations to take on the cost and risk of migrating their data to Spektrix, we’ve developed our own set of tools to seamlessly migrate data from any previous system, with minimum downtime and no need to run both systems in parallel.
Our first home
2008
The first “proper” Spektrix office opens in Highbury, London. It’s just 200 sq ft – a tight squeeze, even for a team of five!
