EventX, Asia’s leading virtual event and exhibition SaaS provider, recently announced the completion of a $10 million Series B financing round, co-led by Gaocheng Capital and HTC.
Founded in 2014, EventX is committed to helping customers reduce the cost of organizing events and exhibitions and collect attendees’ behavioral data to improve marketing effectiveness. So far, the company has successively launched onsite exhibition management software and virtual exhibition solutions, facilitated more than 10,000 events, served more than 20,000 customers and engaged more than 5 million users. Since the launch of its virtual exhibition SaaS solutions in 2019, EventX has experienced explosive growth in 2020 and hosted many national flagship events with over 10,000 attendees. It leads on multiple counts such as customer recognition, engagement impact and revenue growth.
With rapid economic development and the sophistication of networking technology, more and more transaction scenarios are gradually moving online or to a hybrid model. In recent years, the birth of virtual conference and exhibition has broken through the restrictions of geography, scale and frequency, and has been greatly developed in the world. Previously, physical exhibition and conference marketing faced pain points such large space use and high labor costs. Through the virtual exhibition platform, exhibitors will reach a much wider audience at less than 1/10 of the traditional exhibition cost. On the other hand, attendees can participate in one or even more virtual trade shows at the same time in any space. According to a reputable US market research agency, more than 60% of business people prefer virtual exhibitions to the traditional model. And the COVID pandemic further catalyzed the adoption of virtual exhibition SaaS solutions. By creating a data bank, a virtual trade show can connect online and offline data, extract real-time data insights and allow the organizer to adapt its strategies and receive feedback in real time. Meanwhile, it provides tools such as livestreaming and video-conferencing for webcast and webinars and for spontaneous interactions between the exhibitors and audiences.
The global virtual MICE industry is projected to reach nearly $60 billion in size by 2026, with Asia being the fastest-growing geography with nearly $15 billion in addressable market. In Europe and the US, Hopin is the leading virtual event SaaS platform that allows organizers to create, host and manage live events with up to 100,000 participants. Hopin’s valuation already exceeds $5 billion in a space of 18 months. By comparison, EventX is deeply rooted in the Asian market and supports the most spoken languages in the region. Its unique technology architecture delivers superior interactive experience and more intuitive use for Asian clients, giving it a strong upper hand in large international convention.
In 2020, EventX achieved remarkable revenue growth and continued its strong growth momentum and high customer renewal rate in the first half of 2021. With its ability to support cross-border MICE activities, EventX has secured deals with leading organizations in the global MICE industry, including Informa, Reed Exhibition, GL Events, and HKTDC. The company is also closely involved in MICE marketing and has fulfilled the sophisticated needs of corporate customers such as Microsoft, Alibaba, HSBC, Yahoo and Swire Properties.
Research suggests that more than 90% of Asian event organizers will continue to hold conventions in virtual or hybrid settings after the pandemic. EventX will continue to make efforts in the post-pandemic era, fully combine its core technologies such as 5G, 3D, scenario cloud rendering, livestreaming and VR, and provide more integrated and efficient digital services to achieve its vision of becoming Asia’s leading integrated marketing platform for virtual events and conventions.
Sum Wong, Co-founder and CEO of EventX, said, “Since its inception, EventX has made it its mission to build connections and empower the MICE experience. Thank you to the Gaocheng Capital team for believing in EventX. Gaocheng’s deep insights in the SaaS space will help us turn a next chapter for our growth journey. Without doubt, virtual workplaces and virtual exhibitions will become the new norm, and EventX’s proven track record in MICE solutions, combined with groundbreaking new product lines, will promise greater interactivity and a better immersive experience for virtual and hybrid conventions”.
Commenting on the latest investment, Jing Hong, Founding Partner of Gaocheng Capital, said, “Gaocheng is committed to finding and supporting the next generation of SaaS companies. We are impressed with EventX’s innovative products, first-class management team and exponential growth. The lasting impact of the pandemic on physical conventions puts EventX’s virtual and hybrid convention solutions in a sweet spot. They are uniquely positioned to help companies of all sizes run their events and acquire potential customers on a global scale. We believe EventX has the potential to become the next-generation automated MICE-based marketing infrastructure.”
Upon completion of this financing round, EventX will also form a new strategic alliance with VR leader HTC. The two companies will integrate their technology and business capabilities to bring more innovative features to the EventX virtual convention platform. At the same time, EventX will further invest in its product R&D capabilities, improve its subscription-based billing model, build a more structured sales force, and continue to pursue localization opportunities throughout Asia.
