TicketsNow, the Crystal Lake online reseller of tickets to major sporting events, concerts and theater, has had its ticket punched with an $8 million infusion from Chicago area and Silicon Valley venture capitalists -- and there's more to come soon.

The funding is the first the company received from outside investors. But TicketsNow Chief Executive Mike Domek, said Friday he expects another $16 million to $32 million in backing later this year. "We're getting a lot of interest from Silicon Valley [VCs]," he said.

The first round came from Portage Venture Partners in Northfield; high-profile Draper Fisher Jurvetson in Menlo Park, Calif.; DFJ Portage Venture Partners, a joint venture of the two firms, and J.B. Pritzker's New World Ventures in Evanston.

Domek said, "We wanted to play in front of the home team."

He said Portage's affiliation with Silicon Valley-based Draper Fisher was attractive and a way to test the waters in Silicon Valley. Draper Fisher had such major hits as Baidu, the Chinese search engine, and Skype, the Internet phone service purchased by eBay.

Portage VC Matthew McCall said, "We're very excited about TicketsNow. They started with a $100 investment. Last year, they sold $140 million worth of tickets, and this year they expect to sell $220 million. They've been growing 70 [percent] to 130 percent over each of the past seven years. That unbelievable growth was a wake-up call for us."

He said TicketsNow could be in line for an initial public offering within the next 18 months. More>>>

Domek said TicketsNow will use the funding to continue building its "world-class management team" and upgrading its Web site, which, starting in July, will link sales of tickets with reservations for limousines and restaurants.

"We were the first to sell tickets from the secondary market online. What makes us different is we're handling transactions in the secondary ticket market in a secure fashion involving licensed ticket brokers, rather than fan-to-fan sales. We have professionals handling order fulfillment, rather than individuals," he said.

The tickets come from brokers, who obtain them from venues and from season ticketholders.

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