WePay, a Y Combinator backed startup that aims to take the hassle out of group paying, is unveiling a new ticketing feature that allows users to sell tickets online for events. As we’ve written in our previous coverage of WePay, the service is a dead simple way to collect, manage and spend money for groups.
On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each group. While the account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate from your personal transactions. Group money can essentially be kept separate from any individual accounts you may have. You can also designate specific individuals to have control over accounts.
The company offers two options—WePay Tickets which allows organizers to sell tickets and collect basic information from ticket purchasers and WePay Tickets Pro which allows organizers to create custom forms to gather detailed information about event attendees.
The startup says that its offering was already being used to sell tickets for events and adding a dedicated ticketing option made sense for users. WePay contends that its payments platform is superior to others because there is no merchant or PayPal accounts required; the setup is simple, organizers have instant access to the money they collect and users can create custom registration forms.
WePay also offers organizers a way to track event expenses and users can embed a ticket sales widget on websites. Additionally, WePay Tickets charges a 3.5% fee without any additional monthly or credit card processing fees. WePay Tickets Pro charges a fee of 6% + $.99 per transaction. For basis of comparison, Eventbrite charges 2.5% plus $0.99 per ticket, plus credit card processing fees.
Despite competition from PayPal and now Eventbrite, WePay is currently seeing high engagement rates and tens of thousands of people currently use WePay every month to collect money online. And the company is processing “several million dollars” in payment volume per month.
