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In the event tech world, April featured two acquisitions, several product updates and partnership and sadly, one closure and one divestment.
April had a number of high profile announcements in the event tech space. Sadly, we had to create a new divestments and closures section to group two event tech news items.
You can review the previous month’s event tech news here and explore our complete event tech business tracker here.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Brandlive acquired Notified’s virtual events business for an undisclosed sum. Notified retained its IR Event Platform aimed at the niche and profitable investor relations calls market. The acquisition covered mostly the technology Notified, then named Intrado, acquired from Hubb in August 2021.
Bending Spoons, an Italy-based technology firm, will acquire Hopin and its current product lines of StreamYard, Streamable, and Superwave. The deal focused on the StreamYard product and user base, which Hopin acquired for $250 million in January 2021. The company has received over $700 in funding. The latest round of $155 million in equity financing coming two months ago at a post-money valuation of $2.55 billion. The company has publicly expressed its desire to acquire technology companies. Bending Spoons’ business model for some of the products it has acquired involves limiting free offerings, raising prices, and moving to a subscription in place of a one-time fee.
Divestments and Closures
Webex announced it will no longer offer Webex Events (formerly Socio) as a standalone product to new clients. Users of the full Webex Suite will be able to continue using Webex products to run their events. Webex will support existing clients of the standalone Webex Events for one year, until April 30, 2025.
Glue, a finish startup focused on VR work environments, was declared bankrupt. The company said in a statement that it is exploring all options to secure a successor for the Glue service, but users should prepare for the possibility that the Glue service may soon be discontinued.
Product Updates
Banzai, a marketing technology company, has launched an updated version of its platform forucs on webinars and field marketing events. The updated platform named Reach 2.0 features targetted event marketing updates, and improvements to usability, analytics, and campaign management.
GlobalMeet has introduced new AI capabilities that dynamically adjusts face framing in real time. The company says the feature, which can use any existing camera feed, enables natural interactions and engaging meeting and event experiences. The platform updates also include new presenter layouts, virtual backgrounds, and intelligent layout design. The latter uses voice and visual detection to allocate screen space proportionally and reduce unnecessary visual disruptions for a cleaner interface.
Partnerships
Cvent, announced a partnership with Maestro PMS around an integration between Cvent’s room block management system, Cvent Passkey, and Maestro’s property management system solution. The comapanies said the integration will benefit hotelies by automating room list management, and helping to maximize pickup and RevPAR from group guests, all in a secure environment. Planners stand to benefit from a self-serve planner portal allowing them to control rooming lists and drive pickup.
TROOP, a meeting planning and group travel logistics platform, announced a partnership with corporate travel management company Direct Travel. Direct Travel will offer the TROOP platform to new and existing customers. The company was recently acquired by an investment group led by Steve Singh, Managing Director at Madrona, and the founder and former Chairman & CEO of Concur. Direct Travel is looking use TROOP along with Travel-as-a-Service platform Spotnana, and card-first expense management platform Center to provide an integrated workflow for its clients.
Photo credit: Declan Sun / Unsplash
