Ticketplus (TP) Q3 2026 earnings review
Ticketplus sales nearly double, but software costs consume its cash
Ticketplus, a Latin American event-ticketing platform, grew faster in its first report since going public while spending heavily on software. Third-quarter revenue rose 90% from a year ago to $14 million as ticket volume more than doubled, and gross margin climbed 6 percentage points to 49%. Net profit jumped to $1.6 million even after a $1.2 million share-grant charge for its finance chief.
| Revenue | $14.4M +90% from a year ago |
|---|---|
| Total platform sales (GMV) | $177.5M +145% from a year ago |
| Gross profit margin | 49.0% 43.1% a year ago |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $6.1M +108% from a year ago |
⚖️ Verdict: 🟢 Bullish
The story got better because high-margin software licensing to partner ticketing companies is scaling fast and winding down related-party ties. White-label partners generated 58% of ticket volume over the first nine months, lifting margins while the August share offering put $17 million of cash on the balance sheet. One caution: the company capitalized $14 million of software coding costs over nine months, consuming all operating cash flow.
The question now is whether software development spending will slow enough for the business to generate free cash flow. Either platform coding levels off now that 11 markets are live, or expansion requires continuous heavy reinvestment that eats up future profits through amortization. Fourth-quarter capitalized software spending in the annual report will tell.
🐂 Bull Case
White-Label Software Drives Faster Revenue Growth
Ticketplus runs an online platform for selling event tickets and managing venue entry across 11 countries in Latin America. Revenue growth sped up to 90.3% from a year ago in the third quarter, up from 80.8% in the second quarter, as total platform sales (GMV, the total dollar value of tickets and services sold through its system) more than doubled.
- Third-quarter revenue: $14.4 million, up 90.3% from a year ago
- Third-quarter total platform sales (GMV): $177.5 million, up 144.8%
- Nine-month white-label software revenue: $4.2 million, up 230.5%
- Nine-month full-operation revenue: $33.0 million, up 66.4%
The company sells its technology in two ways: a full-operation model where it handles the event, and a white-label software model where other ticketing companies use its system under their own brand. White-label volume rose to 57.7% of total platform sales over the first nine months, up from 42.0% a year earlier. Because software partners pay a smaller fee per ticket — 1.6% of ticket value by our math, against 17.1% for full operations — total revenue grows slower than ticket volume.
What to watch: fourth-quarter revenue breakdown between full-operation and white-label software models in the annual report. Continued double-digit fee rates inside each model would confirm that lower overall fee rates come from software mix rather than price cuts.
Software Mix Lifts Gross Margin Six Points
Fast growth in software licensing is making each dollar of revenue more profitable. Third-quarter gross margin rose 5.9 percentage points from a year ago to 49.0%, because cost of revenue — the direct cost of delivering ticketing and event services — fell from 56.9% of revenue to 51.0%. Ticketplus attributed the gain to "improved unit economics as ticketing and platform volumes scaled and a higher mix of software-based deployments".
Operating costs also grew slower than sales. Administrative expenses — overhead, staff pay, marketing and software amortization — dropped by 9.6 percentage points of revenue to 27.0% by our math, even after a $1.3 million charge for share grants. Excluding one-off listing and share-grant costs, Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) more than doubled to $6.1 million, lifting the margin by 3.7 percentage points to 42.6%.
What to watch: fourth-quarter gross margin and software amortization expense in the full-year results. Holding gross margin near 49% during the busy year-end concert season would show that the cost savings from software scale are permanent.
Related-Party Ties Wind Down After the Listing
Before going public in August, the Chilean ticketing group relied heavily on companies owned by board chair Yethro Dinamarca Santelices for software coding and working capital, and guaranteed a personal mortgage for chief executive Chien-Fu Chen Chen. During the third quarter the company cleaned up several of these arrangements.
Scotiabank Chile released the company from Chen's mortgage guarantee on July 10. In software development, Ticketplus "decided not to assign significant new development projects to these entities" owned by the board chair, cutting unpaid bills to Ozmo and Global Services by 48.9% since December to $1.6 million. Management expects to wind down the remaining balance over coming quarters.
What to watch: related-party trade payables and non-current loans ($2.4 million due in 2029) at year-end. A drop toward zero in related-party software bills will confirm that independent contractors now handle platform coding.
🐻 Bear Case
Software Spending Consumes All Operating Cash Flow
"We invest in our platform ahead of growth," Ticketplus wrote, explaining that it capitalizes software coding costs to build features for future markets. Because these costs go onto the balance sheet as intangible assets rather than straight through the income statement, reported profit looks much stronger than actual cash generation.
- Nine-month operating cash flow: $11.8 million, up 48.8% from a year ago
- Nine-month capitalized software additions: $14.1 million (37.8% of revenue)
- Third-quarter capitalized software additions: about $3.8 million (26.8% of revenue)
- Nine-month free cash flow: -$2.4 million by our math
While Adjusted EBITDA reached $16.0 million in the first nine months, cash capital expenditures on software and equipment totaled $14.2 million, exceeding the $11.8 million of cash generated by operations. That left a cash burn of $2.4 million before financing by our math. As capitalized software rises — up from $15.9 million in December to $23.8 million in September — future amortization charges in administrative expenses will also climb.
What to watch: capitalized software development as a share of revenue in the fourth quarter. A reading that stays near the third quarter's 26.8% rather than the nine-month rate of 37.8% would allow operating cash flow to cover software spending.
Listing Costs and Taxes Cut Into Net Profit
Going public on the NYSE American exchange in August brought in $17.1 million in gross proceeds at $8.00 per share, but transaction fees and share grants took a heavy toll. Total share count rose 25.4% from pre-offering levels to 12.78 million shares, including 454,537 shares worth $3.6 million handed out immediately for services.
The company deducted $4.7 million of offering costs (27.8% of gross proceeds by our math) from shareholders' equity, and booked $1.2 million in administrative expenses for shares granted to its finance chief. Because the Cayman Islands holding company cannot deduct those share grants for tax purposes, the effective tax rate jumped to 39.0% in the third quarter from 14.9% a year ago, reducing net profit.
What to watch: the effective tax rate in the fourth quarter. With the one-time listing share grants behind it, the tax rate should return toward the 27% statutory rate of its operating subsidiaries.
👓 Other Themes
First Acquisition Brings Argentine Currency Exposure
On September 18, Ticketplus bought Autoentrada S.A., an Argentine ticketing company that has used its white-label software since 2019, for $400,000 in cash over two years. Because Autoentrada held $521,699 in cash against a $150,000 upfront payment, the deal added $371,699 of net cash on closing, while introducing exposure to the Argentine peso and hyperinflationary accounting rules as the group prepares "for white-label deployments in markets beyond our current footprint".
💲 Other KPIs
Cash rose more than fourfold from $3.98 million at the end of December 2025, lifted by $14.74 million in net cash proceeds from the August initial public offering. Cash now exceeds total bank loans of $13.04 million by $3.96 million by our math, leaving the balance sheet in a net cash position.
Amounts owed by event promoters, white-label partners and payment processors in collection grew 5.2% from $9.22 million at the end of 2025 by our math. That was much slower than the 76.4% growth in nine-month revenue, reducing the working-capital drag on operating cash flow from $6.22 million a year ago to $1.32 million.
Interest on bank loans and payment-processor advance fees rose 130.4% from $0.25 million a year ago. The increase came from higher commercial borrowing in Chile — including a 2.5 billion Chilean peso loan from Banco Santander in May 2026 bearing fixed interest between 5.18% and 9.93% — before the August share offering brought in new cash.
❓ Key Questions
When will operating cash flow cover software development spending?
Capitalized software development took 37.8% of revenue ($14.1 million) over the first nine months, exceeding operating cash flow of $11.8 million. Even though the ratio dipped to 26.8% in the third quarter, investors need to know if annual coding budgets will level off.
Will Ticketplus pay off its Chilean bank debt?
The company holds $17.0 million in cash after its August share offering, while paying 5.18% to 9.93% interest on $13.0 million of Chilean bank loans that pushed third-quarter financial costs up 130%. Management said only that it continues to evaluate its capital structure.
Who replaces the board chair's software development firms?
Ticketplus stopped assigning major new coding projects to Ozmo and Global Services, which are owned by board chair Yethro Dinamarca Santelices. Management has not said whether external replacements charge higher rates or how the handover affects its quatre-year software amortization schedule.
Why not report third-quarter revenue by business model?
Note 14 breaks down revenue between Full Operation and White-Label SaaS for the nine-month period, but omits the three-month breakdown for the third quarter. Without quarterly figures, readers cannot track whether white-label software fee rates held steady in the latest quarter.