Skift Take
The latest event technology acquisition involves a most unusual investor, the national postal service of Switzerland. It has taken a majority stake in SpotMe, which will continue to operate independently with no changes to its product offering.
SpotMe announced today that Swiss Post has acquired a majority stake in the company. SpotMe’s management team is also investing in the company alongside Swiss Post. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
SpotMe will continue to operate independently as it looks to tap into Swiss Post’s network. The management team, the product and services lineup, and all existing contracts will remain unchanged.
Rumors of a SpotMe had been circulating in the industry since mid-2022, but few would have foreseen this deal. BroadcastMed’s acquisition of legacy virtual event platform Digitell is one of the few examples of investments from industries outside event technology and finance.
“We carefully considered who SpotMe’s ideal partner would be and found a fitting match in Swiss Post, a company that shares our values of reliability, trust, and security. This strategic partnership is expected to provide us with significant momentum for growth, and will benefit not only our company but also our customers on both sides,” says Pierre Metrailler, CEO of SpotMe.
Swiss Post is the national postal service of Switzerland and the country’s second-largest employer, with around 62,300 employees. The company actively develops physical and digital products and services, including the Swiss e-voting system. It also invests in startups through venture capital.
Exactly how Swiss Post is looking to use SpotMe’s technology is unclear. Swiss Post offered some insights in the post announcing the investment mentioning an “aspiration to build a portfolio of digital solutions for secure customer communication and collaboration.”
“All kinds of events play an important role in customer communication. The services provided by SpotMe will in future allow us to offer our business customers security and simplicity in this area,” said Nicole Burth, member of executive management at Swiss Post and head of the communication services unit.
The language used suggests that how Swiss Post will take advantage of SpotMe’s technology is undefined, at least for now. SpotMe did not immediately respond to SkiftMeetings’ request to clarify how Swiss Post is looking to use SpotMe’s technology.
SpotMe, previously Shockfish SA, started in 1998 as a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The company pioneered communication handheld devices used for business events. It later offered mobile event software and held a large inventory of Apple mobile devices for rent. During the Covid pandemic, along with most event app providers, the company pivoted to virtual.
Photo credit: Claudio Schwarz / Unsplash
