London’s going out app YPlan raises a $12M Series A round and says it will expand to NYC in 2013

YPlan, the mobile application that tells you where to go each night, has just raised $12 million (£7.9 million) in Series A financing. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners and included participation by Wellington Partners, Octopus Investments, A-Grade, Kevin Colleran and David Morin’s SLOW Ventures Fund, and Shakil Khan. The new capital will be used to fuel the company expansion as it looks to launch in New York in the second half of this year.

The company’s iOS app has become popular in London, its first city since its launch in 2012. It estimates that its app is on 10 percent of all iPhones in the city with more than 200,000 downloads in the last month. Company co-founder and CEO Rytis Vitkauskas says:

Just six months after launching, we’ve taken London by storm and transformed YPlan from concept into an exciting mobile-only business that is going global.

Named one of London’s ten most-loved mobile apps, YPlan lets users look what’s happening in the city and purchase tickets to the events you want to go to. It’s geared towards spontaneous individuals who aren’t sitting at home and continuously on the move. English actor Stephen Fry has even praised the service, saying “YPlan — now that’s a seriously great app. Last minute events of all kinds booked in seconds. Damned smart.”

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In the US, the market appears to be wide open for YPlan as there are only a small group of companies that will compete with the service. There’s Sosh and WillCall, but those are limited to San Francisco. In New York, YPlan might be able to capitalize on the absence of service.

To date, YPlan says that it has helped share 2,500 events since its launch.

The company has raised a total of $13.7 million in funding.

➤ YPlan for iOS

Photo credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

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