Airmeet, the all-in-one platform for event organizers to host interactive and immersive virtual events, today announced that it has raised $12M in Series A funding. New investor Sequoia Capital India led the round joined by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from returning investors Accel India, Venture Highway and Global Founders Capital (GFC). Gokul Rajaram (Caviar Lead at Doordash) also participated in the round.
Airmeet has grown nearly 2000% over the last quarter, purely organically through word of mouth and social media, gaining one new customer per hour, and by July 2020 had hosted 10,000+ events on its platform. In the coming year, the company aims to achieve the milestone of powering 1000+ events per day on its highly scalable platform that expands beyond traditional virtual event formats by offering multiple new and innovative event templates.
Six months after COVID-19 moved brands and event programmers online, audiences and event organizers continue to crave new ways to expand their reach virtually. Airmeet rethinks how to deliver remarkable virtual experiences and by design has created a platform that is not restricted to hosting only traditionally large conferences – instead, Airmeet can power virtual events ranging from a professional meetup to a large film festival.
The company has empowered event organizers across industries to run a wide variety of events and meetups from trade shows, job fairs, and virtual team cafes to virtual conventions, university resource fairs, and highly technical industry summits on its platform. Airmeet’s fluid interface, scalable backend, and intuitive setup is helping marketers and entrepreneurs organize successful events with limited to no prior events experience.
Airmeet’s product is hyper-focused on “interaction liquidity” and helping participants build authentic connections. The platform’s key experiences include a ballroom-style “social lounge” with freely accessible virtual tables for serendipitous encounters and a “speed networking” lobby where participants can spontaneously meet and make new, sticky connections in rapid, one-to-five-minute increments.
Airmeet was launched in 2019 as a remote-first company. With its Series A round, Airmeet has ambitious plans to accelerate technology development, grow the team of 60 (across six countries) to 100, and expand its customer base globally. Airmeet has successfully powered virtual events for professional communities like Microsoft for Startups, the Linux Foundation, and major educational institutions like the Florida International University.
“Our mission is to make virtual events so effective and engaging that it should appear archaic to organise an on-ground event. We are already seeing an irreversible behaviour change among event organisers and an exponential rise in, what we call, ‘Digitally native events,” said Lalit Mangal, co-founder, Airmeet.
“Covid-19 has accelerated a permanent behavioral shift across many industries. With digitization of largely traditional spaces leapfrogging by years, the $800+ Bn global offline events space is up for grabs. There is massive potential for players who drive the industry’s transition towards online-events”, said Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India LLP. “Airmeet’s mission is to create a global platform to enable millions of community managers and event organizers across the world to engage with and expand their audience. And with Lalit and team’s focus, execution and innovative thinking, they are strongly placed to achieve their goal.”
“Airmeet’s platform creates engaging digital experiences that emphasize interactivity,” said Astasia Myers, investor at Redpoint. “From the virtual tables to networking lounges to real-time audience reactions, Airmeet mirrors the community spirit of an in-person event. We are thrilled to be a part of the journey and very excited for what’s to come.”
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