Mobile event technology and event-performance company DoubleDutch just got a big boost in its drive to create a mobile app and performance analytics for the meetings and events industry. The company announced this morning a $45 million round of growth financing from investment firm KKR and other investors. That’s the highest total ever in the meeting space, according to Russ Hearl, DoubleDutch’s VP of mid-market sales.
The company’s app provides a mobile platform for attendees on the front end, and near real-time event performance data for event organizers on the back end—complete with benchmarks to measure engagement and sentiment regarding events.
“We are thrilled to team up with KKR to tackle this next stage of growth,” says CEO Lawrence Coburn. “The $565 billion spent annually on events and conferences—the biggest marketing spend in the world—is running blind. We believe that DoubleDutch can help.”
The company primarily serves event organizers and planners, but plans are in place to deliver more to the event industry’s sponsors and exhibitors, unlocking new revenue streams for organizers in the process.
“It’s an exciting time to be in software,” says Nicholas Clark, DoubleDutch’s CTO. “For the first time, we have the ability to instrument the physical world like we would a website, a phenomenon that has the potential to completely reinvent how events and conferences are run, managed, and measured. Marketers no longer need to run blind when it comes to events.”
DoubleDutch aims to increase the app’s value to all sides of events, including attendees, exhibitors and organizers. Going beyond mobile event programs, DoubleDutch sees opportunity to leverage data coming off the show floor and help attendees enjoy a personalized and curated experience, assist organizers in benchmarking and optimizing event performance, and ensuring exhibitors don’t leave leads on the table.
And, of course, there’s also a focus on social media.
“DoubleDutch is designing for the next stage of social as well as data to drive smarter decision making for marketers,” said Annie Tsai, Chief Customer Officer at DoubleDutch. “The future of event tech is marketing driven innovation, not logistics, and I think our customers appreciate this.”
DoubleDutch offers a SaaS-like pricing model in which customers gain year-round access to mobile apps and event analytics, giving them the ability to run, manage, and evaluate all of the events within their portfolio.
The company cites global expansion, sales and marketing, and targeted acquisitions as the primary use of proceeds.
