Meeting technology provider Cvent announced today that it is going public with a valuation of $5.3 billion and the ticker symbol CVT for Cvent Holding Corp. The merger with special purpose acquisition corporation Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of this year will allow the 20-year-old company to raise $801 million to pay down debt and invest in product innovation.
A press release estimated the market for in-person, virtual and hybrid events at $30 billion and stated: “With more than 20 years of meeting, event, and hospitality technology leadership and an established customer base, Cvent has momentum to win substantial market share.” The company already counts 200,000 users globally.
Cvent CEO & Founder Reggie Aggarwal pointed to the accelerated digital transformation of meetings and events due to the global pandemic and the popularity of its cloud-based platform to serve as an all-in-one solution to drive live engagement across all event types. “Events became digitized through virtual and online experiences, and we invested heavily in expanding our virtual event capabilities. Now, we are engaging in a hybrid world, as in-person events resume, and virtual events remain prominent. With the increased digitization of our industry, events are ’always on’ and have fewer boundaries. My management team and our nearly 4,000 employees around the world are excited for the opportunity to continue to innovate and enable our customers to leverage Cvent across their Total Event Program.”
Investors in the trust include Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Hedosophia, Oaktree Capital Management L.P., and Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Zoom CFO, Kelly Steckelberg, said, “Cvent and Zoom share a common mission to bring people together through technology. We believe that Cvent’s event technology is complementary to what we offer as a video communications leader, and our organizations already have a long track record of working together as technology partners and as users of each other’s solutions. We are proud to be an investor in Cvent as it accelerates its mission of delivering engaging experiences for virtual, in-person, and hybrid events. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Cvent in the future.”
The announcement came a week before Cvent CONNECT 2021 is schedule for CAESARS FORUM. It is billed as “a living tech tour of Cvent solutions used to support a real hybrid event.”
