Nov 25, 2025
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Service categories
Service Lines
Software Development
Domain focus
Travel & Hospitality
Programming language
Ruby
Frameworks
React.js
Ruby on Rails
Challenge
Seat Unique entered the market with the ambitious goal of disrupting the legacy premium ticketing and hospitality-experience segment. The business needed to:
- Launch an MVP rapidly to secure first-mover advantage.
- Enable fans to buy official premium tickets and hospitality packages online 24/7, directly from rights-holders (clubs and venues).
- Manage rapidly increasing traffic, high-volume transactions, and complex peak-phase demand (thousands of sales per hour).
- Expand from MVP to a fully scalable marketplace with B2B seller tools, white-label partner interfaces, and performance- and security-critical infrastructure.
Seat Unique entered the market with the ambitious goal of disrupting the legacy premium ticketing and hospitality-experience segment. The business needed to:
- Launch an MVP rapidly to secure first-mover advantage.
- Enable fans to buy official premium tickets and hospitality packages online 24/7, directly from rights-holders (clubs and venues).
- Manage rapidly increasing traffic, high-volume transactions, and complex peak-phase demand (thousands of sales per hour).
- Expand from MVP to a fully scalable marketplace with B2B seller tools, white-label partner interfaces, and performance- and security-critical infrastructure.
Solution
Monterail partnered closely with Seat Unique to evolve the platform from an MVP into an enterprise-grade marketplace. Key actions included:
- Delivered the MVP stack using Ruby on Rails, React, and PostgreSQL, with Elixir Phoenix for the high-transaction ticket-selling engine.
- Created a dedicated "Business Development" team (new features) and "Business Assurance" team (reliability, performance, security) to support long-term growth.
- Modernised frontend architecture: rewrote UI using Next.js for improved performance, SEO, and scalability.
- Migrated infrastructure to AWS to support high traffic and global expansion.
- Built a virtual waiting room system and load-testing strategy to handle peak demand during major event releases.
- Developed seller tools and white-label partner interfaces so venues and rights-holders could manage inventory and reach customers directly.
Monterail partnered closely with Seat Unique to evolve the platform from an MVP into an enterprise-grade marketplace. Key actions included:
- Delivered the MVP stack using Ruby on Rails, React, and PostgreSQL, with Elixir Phoenix for the high-transaction ticket-selling engine.
- Created a dedicated "Business Development" team (new features) and "Business Assurance" team (reliability, performance, security) to support long-term growth.
- Modernised frontend architecture: rewrote UI using Next.js for improved performance, SEO, and scalability.
- Migrated infrastructure to AWS to support high traffic and global expansion.
- Built a virtual waiting room system and load-testing strategy to handle peak demand during major event releases.
- Developed seller tools and white-label partner interfaces so venues and rights-holders could manage inventory and reach customers directly.
Results
- The platform has grown dramatically: over 136,000 premium tickets sold in one year, serving more than 40,000 customers across markets.
- Achieved revenue growth of more than 7,900% over four years from the initial MVP.
- Handles ~6,000 transactions per month and more than 1 million monthly visitors, with one in five customers from overseas.
- In August 2024, Seat Unique raised £14.5 million in an extended Series A led by Nickleby Capital, reinforcing its position as a market leader in the experience economy.
Recognised industry-wide: awards such as Disruptor of the Year 2021, and high placements in Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 and Sifted 100. - The long-term partnership model and dual-team structure enabled feature delivery while improving performance & stability without disrupting business operations.
- The platform has grown dramatically: over 136,000 premium tickets sold in one year, serving more than 40,000 customers across markets.
- Achieved revenue growth of more than 7,900% over four years from the initial MVP.
- Handles ~6,000 transactions per month and more than 1 million monthly visitors, with one in five customers from overseas.
- In August 2024, Seat Unique raised £14.5 million in an extended Series A led by Nickleby Capital, reinforcing its position as a market leader in the experience economy.
Recognised industry-wide: awards such as Disruptor of the Year 2021, and high placements in Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 and Sifted 100. - The long-term partnership model and dual-team structure enabled feature delivery while improving performance & stability without disrupting business operations.
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