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Santa Clara: Cvent, U.S.-based event management software company, raises $136 million in series B round of funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Insight Venture Partners along with Greenspring Associates. It is one of the largest software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of online event management, venue selection and web survey solutions.
This is the largest investment in a private business software company till date in 2011. The fund raised will be used for acquisitions and ramping up mobile and social media offerings along with continued transformation of how event organizers find and do business through the Cvent Supplier Network. It provides a free online marketplace for the event planners to connect with hotels and other venues. The fund will also be used for substantial technology developments and continued global expansion.
Established in 1999, it has more than 800 employees worldwide and plans to hire more than 200 over the next 12 months, among which half of them will be engineers focused on continuous enhancements to the company's suite of cloud-based event management, strategic meetings management and web survey products. More than 90,000 event and marketing professionals use the product of the company and its Supplier Network is projected to generate $4 billion in business for hotels in 2011.
"It is rare to find a company that is consistently profitable, growing exponentially and poised to capture even more market share. We see tremendous potential for Cvent, especially for the Cvent Supplier Network, which continues to transform the way event planners find and do business with hotels, special event venues and restaurants," said Tony Florence, partner at NEA.
NEA is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With an approx of $11 billion in corpus, it invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. Some of the portfolio companies are Data Domain, CareerBuilder, Diapers.com, Fusion-io, Groupon, Juniper, Macromedia, Salesforce.com and TiVo.
"Cvent's forward-thinking management team, solid business model and profitability make the company an ideal investment partner for us. We are thrilled to be involved in such a critical phase of the company's growth and look forward to funding its continued advancement," said Jeff Lieberman, Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners.
Founded in New York in 1995, Insight Venture Partners is a leading growth-oriented, entrepreneur-focused private equity and venture capital firm focused on expansion and late stage investments in the global software, Internet and data services industries. With more than $5 billion raised since inception and a large network of technology experts, it provides strong support to its clientele. in 2009, Insight was named among the Top Ten VCs Globally by Red Herring Magazine.
"The real driving force behind the success of our company is the loyalty and belief that our customers and employees have placed in us. As we take Cvent to the next level, we hope that they will continue to believe in us," said Reggie Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Cvent.
Aggarwal is a noted leader in Washington's high-tech and association communities. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year-2009 in the Greater Washington area. Washingtonian Magazine named him to its 2011 list of the 100 Tech Titans of Washington. Forbes Magazine called him one of the rising stars of Washington, Washington Business Forward Magazine named him to its list of the Washinton, D.C.'s 40 most influential business leaders, along with the CEOs of Nasdaq, AOL and Marriott. The largest magazine in the industry, Meeting News, named him as one of the 25 most influential people in the $100 billion meetings industry. He was also appointed as the Governor of Virginia to be Chairman of the Chief Information Officers Advisory Commission.
Aggarwal is the Founder and Chirman Emeritus of the Indian CEO High Tech Council (now the DC Chapter of TiE). The group has grown from 75 to over 4,500 CEO's and Senior Executives in under four years. He has been featured in over 100 articles including Business Week,USA Today, Forbes, and the Washington Post. He has appeared on ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and CNN's "Moneyline with Lou Dobbs" as an authority on meetings and technology. In addition, Aggarwal served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Inova Healthcare System, and the DC Chamber of Commerce. He was also on the Global Board of Trustees of TiE as well as Sales and Marketing Executive International.
The company has made substantial progress in its decade long journey. With 41 percent compounded annual revenue growth for the last five years, a client roster that has doubled in size over the last two years to more than 7,500 organizations, they have kept on adding a significant number of strategic meetings management and event management clients, including Cardinal Health, The Coca-Cola Company, Deere & Company, MetLife, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo. It has expanded relationship with 1,000 hotel chains around the world, including Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Accor.
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