Hubilo bags US$125m in funding, aims to transform future of events

Virtual events platform Hubilo has raised US$125 million in Series B funding which will be used to further the development of the future of events and engagement on Hubilo's platform. The latest funding round was led by Alkeon Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Balderton Capital, and brings the company's total funding to US$153 million to date in less than 18 months. 

According to Hubilo, the Series B funding will supercharge its continued growth go-to-market teams in Asia Pacific, EMEA, UK and US. With these funds, the company is able to develop new business functions, advance the innovation of its platform and strengthen its product. Hubilo also plans to set up new sales offices in key regions to expand its operations and reach a greater volume of customers. In addition, Hubilo will also increase the overall employees’ count by 150% to support its rapid growth plans and to respond to the increased customer demand for virtual and hybrid events.

"The power to engage with massive audiences unlocks the potential for more diverse, geographically dispersed communities to come together for business and consumer events, remote workforces to stay engaged, and organisations to rethink the way they hire and train," said CEO and founder Vaibhav Jain. Though the potential of the investment is endless, Jain added that he has learnt that an intuitive platform is just table stakes. 

Founded in 2015, Hubilo was a company that builds event tech to increase attendee engagement at in-person events. According to Hubilo, the company revenues were dwindling to zero when the pandemic hit. With lockdowns in place in many countries, live events were no longer an option. But rather than panic or become despondent about its business, Hubilo saw an opportunity. Instead of declaring bankruptcy, Hubilo chose to take a new path and turn cancelled live events into virtual events that could connect even more people from around the world in a more convenient and engaging manner.

In a previous interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Cathy Song Novelli, SVP of marketing and communications at Hubilo, said: “Last year, we were all forced to quickly pivot to virtual. So we all did what we knew, which was essentially to run our virtual events like webinars.”

This pace of growth has seen the platform working with clients such as AVIXA, Enterprise Singapore, Maersk Shipping, Infocomm Asia and Smartly.i.o. Globally, the platform has worked with Blackboard, Roche Pharma, Walmart and the United Nations.

In the last couple of years, 15% to 20% of the enterprise event budget has permanently moved to digital events, said Guru Chahal, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Businesses spend over one trillion dollars of direct spending on events, and according to Chahal, Hubilo is one of the fastest-growing and innovative platforms serving this market. "I expect in the next few years that Hubilo will be broadly acknowledged as a market leader in the space,” Chahal added. 

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Photo courtesy: 123RF

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