Woman-Owned and Woman-Founded Ticketing Software: 6 Event Platforms Built by Women (2026)

If you are looking for woman-owned ticketing software, the honest answer is that the list is short and the definitions matter. Six event and ticketing platforms were founded or co-founded by women and still carry that leadership: Eventbrite (Julia Hartz), Whova (Yuanyuan Zhou), Swoogo (Leonora Valvo), Eventeny (Nausheen Punjani), Partiful (Shreya Murthy) and Eventist (Ciara Azam). Only some of them are woman-owned in the procurement sense of majority ownership; public companies and venture-backed startups usually are not, whatever their founding story. This list gives, for each, who founded it, what it does, what it costs as of September 2026 and who it fits, and then explains how to check an ownership claim before it goes into a supplier-diversity form. It is written for organizers, procurement teams and funders who want the fact and not the marketing.

Key takeaways

• "Woman-founded" (a woman started it) and "woman-owned" (women hold a majority of the company) are different claims; most well-known platforms are the first, few are the second.
• The six companies here span the whole market: a public marketplace, two enterprise event platforms, a vendor-first festival tool, a free invitation app and a bootstrapped Canadian ticketing platform.
• For supplier-diversity paperwork, ask for a certification (WBE Canada, WEConnect International, WBENC in the US) or a written ownership statement; a founder's name on the About page is not one.
• Fees range from free to enterprise contracts; the flat-fee and free options are at the small-organizer end of the list.

How we chose

Companies whose founder or co-founder is a woman, confirmed from the company's own pages, press releases or filings, that sell ticketing, registration or event management software organizers can actually buy today. We note current leadership where it has changed. We did not include companies where a woman was later appointed CEO of a business founded by others, or agencies that resell other platforms.

The 6 woman-founded ticketing and event software companies

1. Eventbrite: the public marketplace co-founded by Julia Hartz

Founded: 2006 in San Francisco by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage. Julia Hartz has led the company as CEO since 2016 and was appointed executive chair in 2024; Eventbrite went public in 2018, one of very few tech IPOs with a woman co-founder as CEO.

What it does: self-serve ticketing with the largest consumer marketplace for finding events, plus email tools and paid promotion. Ticketing only: schedule, staffing and site operations live in other tools.

Cost: in Canada, 3.5% + C$1.29 per paid ticket plus 2.9% payment processing, as of September 2026, per Eventbrite's per-country fee table; free events are free.

Ownership: publicly traded (NYSE: EB), so not woman-owned in the majority sense; woman co-founded and woman-led.

Fits: organizers who want marketplace discovery and accept a percentage fee and a shared buyer relationship. The Eventbrite alternatives roundup covers when it does not fit.

2. Whova: the conference app founded by Dr. Yuanyuan Zhou

Founded: 2013 in San Diego by Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou, a UC San Diego computer science professor who is founder and CEO. Whova began as a spin-off from her research group.

What it does: an attendee app and event management platform for conferences: agendas, networking, sponsor and exhibitor tools, registration and check-in.

Cost: quote-based; Whova does not publish prices.

Ownership: privately held; founder-led.

Fits: conferences and association meetings where the attendee app is the product. The Whova alternatives roundup compares it with registration-first platforms.

3. Swoogo: the enterprise event platform co-founded by Leonora Valvo

Founded: December 2015 by Leonora Valvo and Tim Cummins. Valvo had previously founded etouches (later Aventri); she remains a co-founder and director, and Swoogo is led day to day by CEO Chris Sykes. Bain Capital led a US$20 million growth round in 2022.

What it does: registration, event websites, agendas, badging and reporting for corporate and association events, in-person and hybrid.

Cost: annual licence, from about US$11,800 per year as of September 2026, per its pricing page.

Ownership: venture-backed and privately held; woman co-founded, not woman-owned in the majority sense.

Fits: corporate event teams running many events a year on a licence rather than per ticket.

4. Eventeny: the vendor-first festival platform co-founded by Nausheen Punjani

Founded: in Atlanta by Nausheen Punjani (co-founder and chief operating officer) and Aly Hussaini.

What it does: vendor and exhibitor applications, jurying, booth maps and invoicing for markets, art fairs and festivals, plus ticketing, volunteer and sponsor management.

Cost: a free plan funded by fees on transactions, with paid tiers; check its pricing page for current figures.

Ownership: privately held; woman co-founded.

Fits: craft markets, art fairs and community festivals where the vendor roster is the event. The festival vendor management software roundup ranks it against the alternatives.

5. Partiful: the free invitation app co-founded by Shreya Murthy

Founded: 2019 in New York by Shreya Murthy (CEO) and Joy Tao, both formerly of Palantir. Murthy was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2025.

What it does: invitations, RSVPs, guest chat and reminders for parties and community gatherings; increasingly used for free and low-key public events.

Cost: free for hosts.

Ownership: venture-backed and privately held; woman co-founded and woman-led.

Fits: free social events and community meetups; not a ticketing system for paid events with gates and reporting.

6. Eventist: the bootstrapped Canadian platform founded by Ciara Azam

Founded: May 2021 in Kitchener, Ontario, by Ciara Azam, who runs the company. Eventist is bootstrapped, with no outside investors, which makes it woman-owned as well as woman-founded.

What it does: ticketing and the operations around it in one system: tiered passes with caps and payment plans, reserved seating, e-sign waivers and contracts, vendor booth sales, multi-stage scheduling with conflict checks, interactive site maps, staff and volunteer dashboards with shift schedules, QR check-in and a point of sale from any phone, cart recovery by email and SMS, promoter links, and integrations with Stripe, Square, Zoom, Mailchimp, Brevo, HubSpot and Raiser's Edge. Built for festivals, competitions, conferences, concerts, studios and general admission events.

Cost: a flat $0.85 CAD per paid general admission ticket, $4.99 per ticket for the festival and conference package (bulk from $2.99), $9.99 for competitions; free events run on monthly plans; no subscription or setup fee; card processing through the organizer's own Stripe or Square account. Details on the pricing page.

Ownership: privately held, founder-owned.

Fits: Canadian and North American organizers who want ticketing, scheduling, maps and staffing in one flat-fee system with named support; not a consumer marketplace, and not built for arena-scale on-sales. The Canadian-owned ticketing platforms roundup sets it beside the other domestic options.

Comparison table

How to verify a woman-owned claim

If the answer is going into a supplier-diversity form, a grant application or a sponsorship report, "founded by a woman" is not enough. Check:

• Certification. In Canada, WBE Canada certifies businesses at least 51 percent owned, managed and controlled by women; WEConnect International does the same internationally, and WBENC in the United States. Ask the vendor for the certificate number.
• A written ownership statement from the company if it is not certified, naming the owners and their shares. Bootstrapped companies can give one in a sentence; venture-backed companies usually cannot claim majority ownership.
• Leadership versus ownership. A woman CEO of a public or investor-owned company is woman-led, which matters for other reasons, but it is not woman-owned.
• Where the company is based, if your program requires Canadian ownership as well: the Canadian-owned ticketing platforms list covers that separately.

Vendors on this list can be asked these questions directly; the answers above are what their public materials support as of September 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a woman-owned ticketing software company?

Yes. Eventist, founded in 2021 in Kitchener, Ontario by Ciara Azam, is bootstrapped and founder-owned, which makes it woman-owned as well as woman-founded. Several larger platforms were co-founded by women (Eventbrite by Julia Hartz, Whova by Yuanyuan Zhou, Swoogo by Leonora Valvo, Eventeny by Nausheen Punjani, Partiful by Shreya Murthy) but are publicly traded or investor-owned, so they are woman-founded or woman-led rather than majority woman-owned.

Is Eventbrite woman-owned?

Eventbrite was co-founded in 2006 by Julia Hartz, who is its CEO and executive chair, so it is woman-founded and woman-led. It has been a public company since 2018, so it is not woman-owned in the majority-ownership sense used by supplier-diversity programs.

What is the difference between woman-founded and woman-owned?

Woman-founded means a woman started the company. Woman-owned, in procurement and certification programs such as WBE Canada and WBENC, means women hold at least 51 percent of the company and control it. Most venture-backed and all public companies fail the second test even when they pass the first.

How do I find certified women-owned event suppliers in Canada?

WBE Canada and WEConnect International publish directories of certified women-owned businesses, and many municipal and corporate supplier-diversity programs accept those certifications. For software that is not certified, ask for a written ownership statement.

Which woman-founded ticketing platform is best for a small event?

For paid events with a gate, Eventist (flat $0.85 per general admission ticket, festival and competition packages, Canadian support) or Eventbrite (marketplace discovery at a percentage fee). For free social gatherings, Partiful. Whova, Swoogo and Eventeny are built for conferences, corporate programs and vendor-heavy markets respectively.

Founding stories are worth knowing and worth checking. If your event or organization wants to spend its ticketing budget with a woman-owned Canadian company, the Eventist events platform is one; if you want the whole domestic field, the Canadian-owned ticketing platforms roundup is the place to start.