SaaS Provider Cvent Raises $136M From NEA, Insight Venture Partners

Cvent, a software-as-service (SaaS) provider of online event management, venue selection and Web survey solutions, has raised $136 million in funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Insight Venture Partners while Greenspring Associates also took part in the fundraising. This round of funding comes after a decade or more and the monies will be used for technology developments, global expansion and acquisitions.

Founded in 1999, Cvent is a meetings management technology company which offers Web-based software for meeting site selection, online event registration, event management, e-mail marketing and Web surveys. The company employs over 800 people worldwide and has processed over $2 billion in online payments. It has also managed over 30 million event registrations and survey responses for its clients.

Cvent's competitors include companies like Venuetastic and Evenues.

The current funding will be utilised in hiring around 200 new employees over a period of 12 months, half of which will be engineers focused on enhancing the company's suite of Cloud-based event management, strategic meetings management and Web survey products. The new additions will make the employee head count around a thousand.

Cvent will also improve its social media and mobile offerings, and further grow the Cvent Supplier Network – a free online marketplace that connects event planners with venues. According to the firm, the Cvent Supplier Network is projected to generate $4 billion in business for hotels in 2011, up from $60 million in 2008.

"We're 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.

"We see tremendous potential for Cvent, especially for the Cvent Supplier Network," said Tony Florence, a partner at NEA.

Insight and NEA have earlier invested in companies like Groupon, Salesforce and Twitter. However, 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.

According to Cvent, the company has witnessed 41 per cent compounded annual revenue growth (CAGR) for the last five years while its client roster has doubled in size over the last two years and now includes more than 7,500 organisations. The company's key clients are Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, Deere & Company, MetLife, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo, and it has strong business relationship with hotels like Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, the Intercontinental Hotels Group and Accor.

"Eleven of our 12 senior management executives have been with the company since its inception, and we have had 40 straight quarters of growth," said Reggie Aggarwal, founder & CEO of Cvent. "The real driving force behind our success is the trust that our customers and employees have places in us" he added.