Cvent raises $136 million in funding

Cvent, the software-as-service (SaaS) provider of online event management, venue selection and web survey solutions, has 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 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 11 of our 12 senior management executives have been with the company since its inception, and we’ve had 40 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 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;
• 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.