Zerve, a New York-based seller of cloud-based platform that lets merchants sell tickets for tours, activities and events, has said it will likely close soon.
In an email to customers, it said:
"Over the past several months, we had been approached by several companies about potentially acquiring Zerve, we engaged in deep discussions with those and others, and for several of those scenarios, we are confident you’d have been thrilled with where we’d have wound up.
Sadly, we just learned that the most likely acquisition scenarios were not going to come to be.
We are continuing some of those conversations even now and we are still working feverishly in hopes of being able to reach out again soon to let you know that we will be able to continue."
Tnooz was unable to reach an executive at Zerve on deadline, but will update if we hear back.
Now in its 13th year of operation, Zerve began by focusing on providing technology for local activity providers in the US, such as sellers of food tours. The tech helped the operators market themselves and sell tickets online.
In the early years, Zerve didn't market to consumers, who instead found its white-labeled booking tool via Google or merchant's websites.
A few years ago it decided to ramp up a platform for selling activities and events directly to consumers at Zerve.com, eventually saying it had amassed 30,000 listings.
In 2014, it told TechCrunch that it had secured $20 million in funding led by venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). (Tnooz could not find an SEC filing about this round.) That funding brought its total money raised to $34 million, according to Crunchbase's estimates based on public statements.
In 2015, it was ranked as one of the 17 best small- to mid-size startups to work for in the US, based on ratings by former workers on reviews site Glassdoor.
Here is an excerpt from its email to customers today:
"Currently we believe we will need to discontinue our services next week. At the moment, we expect to be able to continue operating our phone services until Tuesday July 5 (albeit potentially at lower levels than normal), and to continue providing access to our online platform a bit longer, but there are some unpredictabilities out of our control that could have that timing change in either direction.
"We know this news comes as a very unwelcome shock and is disruptive for you, your business and your teams, especially during what is a very important summer / holiday period for so many of you.
"We deeply apologize for this and we have been working tirelessly to avoid this situation, but unfortunately this is now our reality and we just wanted to let you know right away....
We are working tirelessly to find an alternative to shutting down services, which would allow a smoother transition for you, but cannot guarantee success...."
A Zerve seller Facebook group has been set up the help suppliers cope with the likely transition.