for an event organiser was finding a platform that could host a virtual event. Fast forward 18 months, and the challenge was differentiating the offer from hundreds of providers. A market that scarcely existed pre-pandemic blossomed. As Tamar Beck, CEO of Marketing Tech platform Gleanin, suggested, ‘a big bubble focusing on a tiny part of the overall event tech market was created’. Pierre Metrailler, CEO of SpotMe, noticed a ‘pop’ around October 2021. “At that time, I was answering two or three inquiries a week for investment or interest in acquisition,” he says, “but owing to the flat performances of the public companies, private interest has dropped since then.” Metrailler’s gut feeling about that final quarter of 2021 is backed up by the market dips in the share prices of the big public three event/meeting
technologies. ZoomTechnologies peaked in Nov, at almost three times the value in early March 2022. Cvent’s highest figure was in December and it is now down over 30 per cent while October was the peak for On24, now down a third on that value. Jordan Walsh, Delegate Connects’ co-founder, puts the investment activity down to the absence of a clear industry leader in a sector which, he says, has enormous potential. “I think the funds that are backing some of the platforms are hoping they will become the Slack of communications or the Zoom of video meetings; they are backing what they hope will be the industry leader. Because the leader in the category is still up for grabs.” But the leader in what? Event technology suffers from the exact catch-all definition as the events industry as a whole – pulling up a whole host of
October 2021 saw Hubilo raise $125m.
In January 2022 Aventri and MeetingPlay merged.
March 2022 All-seated secured $15m investment.
2022
February 2022 Indian based Airmeet raised $35m.
September 2021 Australian based Delegate Connect raises $10m.
In December 2021 Cvent became public again. Upon launch, it was valued at over $5bn.
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