Mobile ticketing firm Ticket Text has secured €350,000 in funding and plans to raise multimillion euro funding before the end of this year.

The self-styled Irish rival to Ticketmaster secured €175,000 from Enterprise Ireland under its high-potential start-up programme and also took on matching funding from its angel investors. The firm was founded in 2006 by Mark McLaughlin, a son of businessman Kyran McLaughlin of Davy Stockbrokers. Its technology allows a ticket to be sent as a text message, which can be scanned at a venue.

‘‘We see it as more of technology company than an ecommerce company. Anyone can be a ticket seller and our technology can enable anyone to do so,’’ McLaughlin said. He described the latest funding round, which brings the total amount raised by the company to date to almost €3.5 million, as a ‘‘bridging round’’.

McLaughlin said the company hoped to take on further funding, of between €2 million and €5 million, by the end of this year.

Ticket Text had accumulated losses of more than €1.9million at the end of Apr i l last. McLaughlin attributed the company’s losses to the costs involved in developing its technology and establishing the business.

He said the company had generated sales of €1 million since March 2007 and while he said the firm would not break even in the current financial year, he said its ‘‘rate of cash burn’’ had fallen significantly. The company employs nine people and has struck deals with venues including the Apollo in London and Punchestown Racecourse.

The shareholders in Ticket Text include McLaughlin, fellow director James Bailey and company chairman Tim Delaney, who is a former senior executive at Sony BMG in Europe. The board of the firm also includes Canadian entrepreneur Kevin Kimsa.

The institutional shareholders in Ticket Text are Davycrest Nominees, a Davy investment vehicle, and Plainfield Asset Management in Canada.