Hubilo Raises $23.5 Mn In Series A Round Co-led By Lightspeed Venture Partners And Balderton Capital
The company will invest the funds in strengthening its product and design teams in India and building out its US- and Europe-based go-to-market teams
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
San Francisco-headquartered virtual and hybrid event technology platform Hubilo announced a $23.5 million Series A investment led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Balderton Capital, alongside several industry experts and luminaries, including John Thompson, chairman of the Board, Microsoft, and Chris Schagen, former chief medical officer, Contentful.
The Series A funding will also help accelerate the development of Hubilo's platform. In the next few months, Hubilo plans on rolling out several features that will enable stronger attendee engagement and new monetization opportunities for organizers.
"Our strategy, product features, and platform intelligence are expanding the possibilities of what is achievable in the events space, and we are continually delivering greater value for event organizers, sponsors, and other stakeholders. We're excited to welcome our investors onboard as we begin this next phase of global expansion," commented Vaibhav Jain, founder, and chief executive officer, Hubilo.
The company's customers include names such as United Nations, Roche, Informa Markets, Tech in Asia, Fortune, AWS, Siemens, Cognizant, Veritas Technologies, GITEX, and several others.
Exactly a year ago, the platform witnessed its revenue as a successful in-person events company begins to collapse as the pandemic took hold.
"In our research, some of the most demanding customers worldwide made it clear that Hubilo was their trusted partner in both these categories, virtual and hybrid. We are delighted to lead Hubilo's Series A funding and use Lightspeed's global resources to support their exponential growth," shared Guru Chahal, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners US.
The company has claimed to have doubled down on its virtual events platform, adding hundreds of features in less than a month to support the needs of the largest and most demanding conferences in the world, and has grown its revenue by 50 per cent month-over-month since enrolling the first customer for its virtual events platform in April 2020.
The platform maintains that it has already hosted more than a million attendees on its platform, without the all too common "Zoom fatigue.'
Organizers see increased attendee engagement through built-in networking features, including meeting tables, private rooms, meeting schedules, and gamification features such as leaderboards. Organizers also love the one-click integration with existing go-to-market platforms including HubSpot, SalesForce, and Marketo, enabling them to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) through event data integrated with their existing workflows, the company said.
"As Hubilo's first institutional backers, we are extremely pleased to welcome new world-class investors and board members to the team as we shift into an even higher gear to dominate virtual and hybrid events in a world that is emerging out of the pandemic," added Hemant Mohapatra, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners India.
In March 2021, over 4000 marketing professionals, 40 CMOs, and 400 event industry professionals from around the world will come together for the company's two-day Restart 2021 virtual event to build a more vital collective understanding of the power of experiential digital events and their benefits.
The company has witnessed a growth rate of over 10,000 per cent in less than a year and has raised a seed round of $4.5 million in Seed round in November 2020.
