Cvent raises $136m. in funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Insight Venture Partners

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Cvent, the world’s largest software-as-service (SaaS) provider of online event management, venue selection and web survey solutions, announced it has secured $136 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Insight Venture Partners, with Greenspring Associates also participating. This is the first round of funding in over a decade for the company, and will be used for substantial technology developments, continued global expansion and potential acquisitions.

With this investment, Cvent plans to hire more than 200 employees over the next 12 months, bringing its headcount to 1,000. At least half of these new hires will be engineers focused on continuous enhancements to the company’s suite of cloud-based event management, strategic meetings management and web survey products. Cvent will also evolve its social media and mobile offerings, and accelerate the growth of the Cvent Supplier Network, the world’s largest free online marketplace that connects event planners with venues. The Cvent Supplier Network is projected to generate $4 billion in business for hotels in 2011-up from $60 million in 2008.

“It’s rare to find a company that is consistently profitable, growing exponentially and poised to capture even more market share,” said Tony Florence, a partner at NEA. “Already the market leader in the event management space, 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.”

This is the largest investment in a private business software company this year, and the eighth largest investment across all industry sectors, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource. With a history of investing in visionary technology companies -such as Groupon, Salesforce and Twitter- and known for supporting companies through their initial public offerings, Insight and NEA are natural partners for Cvent.

“We pride ourselves in our company’s stability. This is evidenced by the fact that eleven of our twelve senior management executives have been with the company since its inception, and we’ve had forty straight quarters of growth,” said Reggie Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Cvent. “But the real driving force behind our success 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’ll continue to believe in us.”

This funding comes on the heels of exceptional growth for Cvent, highlighted by:
– 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;
– The addition of 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; and
– Expanded relationships with nearly all of the top 1,000 hotel chains around the world, including Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Accor.

“Cvent’s forward-thinking management team, solid business model and eight and half straight years of profitability make the company an ideal investment partner for us,” said Jeff Lieberman, Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners. “We’re thrilled to be involved in such a critical phase of the company’s growth and look forward to funding its continued advancement.”

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Vicky Karantzavelou

Co-Founder & Chief Editor - TravelDailyNews Media Network | + Articles

Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.