What Substrakt does

Substrakt is a Birmingham-headquartered digital agency that designs and builds websites, digital products, and ticketing experiences exclusively for arts, cultural, heritage, and creative-sector organisations. Founded in 2006 and operating with 30+ staff across the UK, Europe, and North America (with a remote-first Ontario team), the company serves theatres, opera companies, orchestras, museums, galleries, dance companies, and festivals — including the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, Sadler's Wells, Southbank Centre, Crystal Bridges, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. The technology stack centres on Wagtail CMS, serverless microservices, and REST API integrations with the dominant sector ticketing systems (Tessitura v15/v16, Spektrix), augmented by three proprietary products: Viadukt (an accessible online ticketing/booking path with seat selection, smart upselling, multilingual support, Nimbus Disability Access Card, and Preevue seat-view integration), Showcase (a branded on-demand and live streaming platform integrated with Spektrix/Tessitura and Stripe), and Quick Donate (a 1-step donation widget using Stripe). A modular suite (Construkt, Attendable, SEO Tool, Forms Builder, Biographies, Calls to Action) extends the core website platform. Substrakt is a certified B Corp (score 111.3) and a signatory to the Show The Salary pledge and the Tech Talent Charter.

The business model combines professional services — discovery, design, custom development, ticketing integration, and strategic consultancy — with a recurring product revenue layer. Project work is quoted based on scope, while Showcase is priced at a £4,000 upfront implementation fee plus £400/month, Quick Donate carries a one-off implementation fee plus Stripe transaction fees (with a lower charity rate), and Viadukt pricing is provided on demo request. Distribution is primarily enterprise direct sales via discovery workshops and strategic consultations, with a product-led growth motion for Viadukt demo sign-ups and content marketing (annual benchmark reports, monthly 'Culture Wire' newsletter, webinars) as a top-of-funnel engine. Geographic reach spans the UK, mainland Europe (e.g., Sweden), the US, and Canada, supported by core technology partnerships with Tessitura, Spektrix, Stripe, Vimeo Enterprise, Nimbus Disability, Preevue, and Campaign Monitor.

The competitive positioning rests on 15+ years of exclusive sector focus, deep ticketing-platform integration expertise, and B Corp-certified governance. Customer logos skew to large UK cultural institutions (National Theatre, RSC, Sadler's Wells, Shakespeare's Globe, Southbank Centre), with emerging North American clients such as the Naples Players, Santa Fe Opera, and VIFF. The 2025 Cultural Website Benchmark Report analysed 87 organisations, 140M+ user sessions, and 3.9M ticketing transactions — a research asset that doubles as a marketing funnel. The company is privately held and founder-led by CEO Andy Hartwell, with no disclosed institutional funding or M&A activity.

Name

Substrakt

Legal name

Substrakt

Website

https://substrakt.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Substrakt is a Birmingham-based digital agency that designs websites, digital products, and ticketing platforms exclusively for arts, cultural, and heritage organisations across the UK, Europe, and North America, anchored by its proprietary Viadukt, Showcase, and Quick Donate products.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Birmingham

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Design and Development Services: Custom website and digital product development for arts and cultural organisations. Projects include discovery, design, development, and ongoing support phases.
2. Ticketing Integration Services: E-commerce and ticketing solutions including Tessitura TNEW optimization, Spektrix integrations, and custom ticketing functionality. Services span 15+ years of experience.
3. Consultancy Services: Strategic consultancy including digital strategy, content, analytics, UX/user research, and Google Ads support.
4. Showcase Product Licensing: Streaming platform with upfront implementation cost of £4,000 and ongoing monthly cost of £400. Cancel anytime with 30 days notice.
5. Quick Donate Product: One-off implementation fee plus Stripe transaction fees for donation processing.
6. Viadukt Product Licensing: Online booking path product licensed to cultural organisations. Pricing not publicly disclosed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Substrakt partners with arts and cultural organisations to design and build websites and digital applications, anchored by three proprietary products: Viadukt (accessible online ticketing/booking), Showcase (branded on-demand and live streaming), and Quick Donate (one-step donation tool). It supplements these with bespoke Design and Development, Ticketing Integration (Tessitura TNEW, Spektrix) and Strategic Consultancy services spanning digital strategy, content, analytics, UX research and Google Ads support.

Product overview

Substrakt operates as a digital partner for arts and cultural organisations, offering a portfolio of proprietary products complemented by professional services. Their product suite includes three core digital products: Viadukt (an accessible online ticketing and booking platform), Showcase (a streaming and content monetisation platform), and Quick Donate (a donation tool). These are supplemented by modular content authoring tools (Construkt, Attendable, SEO Tool, Forms Builder, Biographies, Calls to Action) that are part of their website building and development services. Their professional services include Design and Development, Ticketing Integration (specialising in Tessitura and Spektrix), and Consultancy (covering Digital Strategy, Content, Analytics, UX/Research, and Google Ads Support). The company also produces annual benchmark research reports for the cultural sector.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Viadukt: A flexible and accessible online booking path that helps cultural organisations to sell more tickets.
• Showcase
• Quick Donate

Products and services

• Viadukt Flexible and accessible online booking path for cultural organisations that helps sell more tickets. Features include configurable seat selection (Select Your Own Seat), smart upselling, multilingual support, custom admin panel, serverless scalability, Nimbus Disability Access Card integration for personalised accessible booking journeys, Preevue seat view integration, plus Booking Protect and Secure My Booking integrations.
• Showcase Custom branded on-demand and live streaming platform for cultural organisations to distribute and monetise digital content. Supports one-off, rental and subscription models, integrates with Spektrix and Tessitura for customer data and access management, uses Vimeo Enterprise for content protection, and Stripe for payments. Upfront implementation £4,000 plus £400/month ongoing.
• Quick Donate Simple, intuitive 1-step donation tool with mobile-first design, rapid implementation, and system-agnostic approach. Uses Stripe for payment processing (lower charity rate available), supports multilingual display, customisable branding, SmartLinks for pre-populated amounts. Priced via one-off implementation fee plus Stripe transaction fees.
• Design and Development Services Custom website and digital product development for arts and cultural organisations. Projects span discovery, design, development and ongoing support phases, typically delivered for major institutions such as the National Theatre, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Vancouver International Film Festival.
• Ticketing Integration Services E-commerce and ticketing solutions including Tessitura TNEW optimisation, Spektrix integrations, and custom ticketing functionality. Services span 15+ years of experience with Tessitura v15/v16 REST APIs, Spektrix iframes and the Spektrix v3 API.
• Strategic Consultancy Services Strategic consultancy including digital strategy, content strategy, analytics, UX/user research, and Google Ads support, delivered via discovery workshops and tailored roadmaps to cultural sector clients undergoing digital transformation.

Quantifiable outcome

• 350% increase in search impressions
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers19 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• TessituracoreTechnology or IntegrationDeep partnership with Tessitura for ticketing integrations. Substrakt sponsors, attends and presents at Tessitura Europe and Tessitura Learning and Community Conferences. Specializes in optimizing TNEW and working with Tessitura REST API.
• SpektrixcoreTechnology or IntegrationActive members of Spektrix community working closely with product team. Over a decade of experience with Spektrix iframes and web components, plus extensive v3 API experience.
• Nimbus DisabilitycoreTechnology or IntegrationViadukt integration with Nimbus Disability Access Card transforms online booking for users with access needs. Automatically knows individual users' access requirements and guides them through personalised booking journey.
• PreevuecoreTechnology or IntegrationViadukt integration with Preevue (Laser Scanning and Digital Twin Specialist) provides high-resolution views from every seat in the auditorium. First integration at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processing for Showcase streaming platform and Quick Donate tool. Stripe processes customer payments, handles receipts and refunds. Lower charity rate available.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Capacity Interactive: US-based digital marketing agency focused exclusively on arts, culture and the public sector — the closest direct functional peer to Substrakt in terms of vertical specialisation and digital services offering for cultural organisations.
• TRG Arts: International consultancy serving performing arts and cultural organisations on audience development, digital strategy and operational benchmarking — directly comparable to Substrakt's consultancy and benchmarking work in the same vertical.

Broad incumbents

• Tessitura: Dominant CRM and ticketing platform for performing arts and cultural organisations globally. Less a head-to-head competitor and more a critical technology partner, but its expanding TNEW front-end ambitions overlap with Substrakt's Viadukt space.
• Spektrix: UK-based SaaS ticketing, fundraising and CRM platform for arts and cultural organisations. A deep integration partner of Substrakt today, its growing web components increasingly overlap with the front-end booking experiences Viadukt competes against.
• Blackbaud: Large US-listed provider of CRM, ticketing, fundraising and financial management software for non-profits, education and the arts — a broad incumbent whose expanding product suite competes for the same technology budgets Substrakt targets via Viadukt and Showcase.
• PatronManager: Salesforce-native CRM, ticketing, fundraising and marketing platform purpose-built for arts and cultural organisations — overlapping with Substrakt's digital products and consultancy services at the same buyer.
• Gateway Ticketing Systems: Long-established ticketing and visitor management platform for cultural attractions, museums, zoos and theatres worldwide — comparable in serving many of the same institutions Substrakt works with across its product portfolio.

Regional players

• Culture24: UK-based digital showcase and editorial platform for the cultural sector. While non-commercial in structure, it plays a comparable content and sector-data role in the UK to Substrakt's benchmark reports and cultural-sector editorial resources.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/substrakt
• Instagraminstagram.com/substrakt_hq

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Substrakt