WillCall, a San Francisco-based developer of a mobile app for concerts, has raised $1.2 million in angel funding from Sean Paker, Coran Capshaw, Loeb & Loeb partner John Frankenheimer, Red Light Management’s Bruce Flohr and a number of other angel investors.
“There aren’t many people with visibility into the nuances of both the music and technology communities, and we’re thrilled to have access to the collective wisdom, insight, and perspective of this group of music industry titans,” the company wrote in a blog post.
WillCall, currently available in San Francisco and New York, aims to make it easier to discover concerts and get deals on VIP offers. The app sells tickets to a handful of events at any given time. On Thursday morning the app listed 11 events in San Francisco — two for Thursday evening, eight for Friday evening and one for August 24th.
If this sounds familiar it’s because similarly named San Francisco-based startup Thrillcall basically does the same thing. Thrillcall offers daily deals, value-added items and tickets to sold-out events. Timbre, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also offers concert discovery and in-app ticket purchases but lacks specials deals and VIP packages.
But WillCall has a few unique wrinkles. One is the ability to order an artist’s merch online rather than at the venue. Merchandise purchased via the WillCall app will be shipped to the buyer. Fans can show their support by using the app to directly tip an artist. The app also offers custom packages — tickets, drinks, VIP packages — that can be purchased directly from the app.
