Global markets have grown to become a US$110b opportunity for virtual event, says Jain
Event-led engagement platform Airmeet of Lewes, Delaware, says existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Accel India were joined by new investors Prosus Ventures, Sistema Asia Fund, RingCentral Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, DG Daiwa Ventures and Nexxus Global in Series B US$35 million funding raised for global expansion.
Last year Airmeet experienced tremendous organic word-of-mouth growth from its existing user community, scaled its recurring revenue 24X since Series A investment and is growing at 30% MoM, enabling more than 120,000+ event organizers to stream 150 million minutes of video airtime globally.
Key customers helping to lead organic growth include Flipkart, Fifth Element Group, BMF Media, Unifrog Education, NPower Inc, University College London, Rotman School of Management, Zircom (Shell Oil), Viacom CBS, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Minnesota State University, Mankato, and First3Years.
Funds raised will go towards expanding its footprints in the global marketplace, with plans to invest heavily in R&D and scaling its GTM function. The team will also be focusing on strategic activities that will bring more visibility to the brand and its offerings in the international market.
“Customer engagement has been fast evolving into a space that needs to go beyond the traditional channels. Brands have to start conversations and engage with customers without losing their human touch in the virtual space. Our mission has always been to focus on engagement and assist businesses with scaling their customer engagement through multiple interactive event formats,” Lalit Mangal, co-founder of Airmeet, said on 8 Feb 2022.
Airmeet’s immersive engagement suite empowers businesses and communities to connect with their audience, engage in meaningful conversations, exchange feedback, and build long-lasting relationships through events. Marketers, community managers, sales executives, and customer relationship teams leverage Airmeet’s 360-degree attendee engagement suite to dive deep into audience needs and dynamically update their customer engagement strategy with highly interactive touchpoints.
Offering two product formats, ‘Conference’ and ‘Social Webinar’, Airmeet enables businesses and organizations to break boundaries, build relationships and unlock new revenue streams. With the ability to scale up to 100,000 participants, support multi-format events such as webinars, hybrid conferences, trade shows, and workshops, Airmeet is building an all-year-round engagement suite that will extend into virtual reality and the metaverse to deliver a highly immersive experience.
Airmeet, which also has offices in California and Bangalore, enjoys immense support and favorable feedback from the user community, placing their NPS and G2 Crowd ratings among the industry’s best.
Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments, India, Prosus Ventures, said, “The pandemic has brought in a marked shift in the way we work, the way we interact with customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
“This shift has further accelerated the adoption of agile and virtual solutions to cater to business needs. We are excited to partner with Airmeet as they support the transformation and evolution of the enterprise SAAS marketing space and deliver an outstanding audience experience through a uniquely customer-centric approach.”
“The global market for virtual events has grown to become a US$110 billion opportunity aided by the new realities of work, networking and marketing. Airmeet with their acclaimed superior product delivering a near offline-equivalent conference experience is placed well to tap into this major paradigm shift in the global conferencing market,” believes Sumit Jain, Senior Partner at Sistema Asia Fund.
“This pandemic has shifted the way companies engage with various stakeholders (customers, employees, etc.) to digital given the efficiency and immersive experience associated with it. Airmeet is at the forefront of this transformation. We’ve been a partner to Airmeet for 18+ months now and are impressed with the team’s product focus, relentless execution, and immense customer love for the product. We look forward to many more years of compounding growth at Airmeet,” Abhishek Mohan, Principal, Sequoia India.
“The working style has dramatically shifted to online over regions. Airmeet provides an innovative platform that benefits both online and offline conference features. As the platform can deliver convenient and engaging full-stack customer experiences, we believe in the potential for further market expansion. We are honored to partner with Airmeet teams on its remarkable journey and excited to tackle the Japanese market together,” Masahito Okuma, Representative Director of DG Daiwa Ventures.
“The ongoing shift to remote and hybrid working has accelerated demand for virtual engagement software. We’re proud to be an investor in Airmeet, which has seen tremendous growth since it launched in 2019. The Airmeet team has built a world-class solution that aligns with RingCentral Ventures’ mission to support breakthrough innovation in the communications and collaboration space,” Kira Makagon, Chief Innovation Officer of RingCentral.
Airmeet is an event-led customer engagement platform that helps businesses, associations, educational institutions, SMBs, communities, and government organizations establish meaningful touchpoints with their global audience through rich, engaging, and immersive event experiences.
Airmeet, a remote-first company headquartered in the USA with 300+ employees spread across India and North America was co-founded by Lalit Mangal, Manoj Singh, and Vinay Kumar Jaasti in 2019. They have been together since Lalit’s previously successful venture – CommonFloor, which was acquired by Quikr.com for US$200 million.
Over 5,500+ brands including Flipkart, Fifth Element Group, BMF Media, Unifrog Education, NPower Inc, University College London, Rotman School of Management, Zircom (Shell Oil), Viacom CBS, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Minnesota State University, Mankato, and First3Years, use Airmeet’s platform to host events, across the globe every month. fiinews.com
