Cvent Holding Corp.
on Thursday started buying and selling on Nasdaq following a digital makeover aimed toward retooling the 22-year-old event-management software program firm for the age of video conferences and digital conferences.
The transfer comes 5 years after the previous public firm was acquired by Vista Fairness Companions for $1.65 billion and brought non-public. In July, Cvent agreed to merge with
Dragoneer Development Alternatives Corp. II,
a special-purpose acquisition firm, returning to the general public market with a valuation of roughly $5.3 billion. Early traders embrace Constancy Administration and Analysis Co., Hedosophia, Oaktree Capital Administration and virtual-conferencing big
Zoom Video Communications,
the corporate mentioned.
Primarily based in Tysons Nook, Va., Cvent has roughly 21,000 clients worldwide and about 4,000 staff, the corporate mentioned. Till just lately, it targeted totally on offering cloud-based software program designed to assist organizers handle stay occasions, together with venue choice, registration and onsite verify in, amongst different instruments.
However like many corporations, the onset of Covid-19 pressured Cvent to pivot on-line and re-tailor its expertise to higher serve a fast-growing digital market.
“Our product technique modified,” mentioned
David Quattrone,
Cvent’s co-founder and chief expertise officer. Earlier than the pandemic, he mentioned, greater than 95% of the corporate’s income was targeted on in-person occasions. “When the pandemic hit in 2020, your entire world shifted to digital,” he mentioned. In response, the corporate launched into a full reconstruction of its platform, including up to date instruments and performance geared towards distant occasions.
Cvent was an early adopter of a software program as a service, subscription-based mannequin during which software program is delivered to customers on-line or within the cloud.
For organizations and distributors targeted solely on in-person occasions, the pandemic was a stunning wake-up name, mentioned Adam Preset, a analysis vice chairman at IT analysis and consulting agency
Gartner Inc.
However even for tech companies that already provided a mixture of face-to-face and digital occasions, the swift transition was jarring, he mentioned. “Demand for digital occasions was excessive, which meant that typically some suppliers have been turning enterprise away as a result of their pipelines have been full within the panic and rush to digital,” Mr. Preset mentioned.
Gross sales within the international virtual-events market, which hit $94 billion in 2020, are anticipated to increase at a compound annual progress price of 23.7% over the following seven years, in accordance with market analyst Grand View Analysis.
Cvent final month reported $134.1 million in complete income for the quarter ended September 30, a rise of 13.1% from the identical interval a 12 months earlier. Income from Occasion Cloud, its primary software program platform, was up 27.2% to $92.5 million, the corporate mentioned.
“From a tech perspective, the pandemic accelerated traits we have been already seeing—and planning for—with our pipeline of investments and redesigns,” Mr. Quattrone mentioned. “It actually was an entire pivot from the in-person focus we had been used to for greater than 20 years.”
He expects the market to proceed to evolve over the following few years. If 2020 and 2021 have been all about digital, 2022 shall be all about hybrid or a mix of each in-person and digital experiences, he mentioned. “The very fact of the matter is, regardless of how the business decides to fulfill sooner or later, we’ll be there.”
Write to Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com
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