Rentalcars co-founder named TickX chairman

Laurence Marlor is also Sykes Cottages non-exec

Rentalcars co-founder Laurence Marlor has become chairman of event and ticket search engine TickX.

His move comes after the sale of Rentalcars.com to Booking Holdings in 2010 and his involvement as a non-executive director at Goldcar ahead of its acquisition by Europcar for more than £500 million.

Marlor is also a non-executive director at Sykes Cottages, which was acquired last week by Skyscanner and JustEat backer Vitruvian Partners.

TickX, founded in 2015 by Steve Pearce and Sam Coley, received £3 million investment from venture capital firms BGF Ventures and 24Haymarket last year.

The TickX team has since grown, developing aggregation technology.

It also expanded to offer millions of tickets to gigs, theatre, comedy, festivals and cinema.

TickX claims to simplify the process of finding and buying tickets by comparing more than 100 ticket selling platforms, including Ticketmaster, Skiddle and Eventbrite.

The company is now poised to develop its global customer acquisition strategy.

Marlor said: “TickX represents an amazing opportunity for me to work with Steve, Sam and their very talented team to help them fulfil their vision to be the premier global platform for entertainment tickets”

CEO Pearce added: “We are delighted to welcome Laurence as our new chairman. His vast experience building some of the world’s largest consumer-facing brands in the travel industry will be invaluable as we step up our international growth.

“The travel market shares a lot of characteristics with our industry, so Laurence’s expertise and guidance gives us a significant boost as we drive towards becoming the global go-to destination to search and book entertainment tickets.”