Deal focus: Airmeet rewires the conference circuit

Few industries have been disrupted by the mayhem around COVID-19 as thoroughly as conferences and business events. It’s not just because social distancing and travel restrictions strike at the essence of the estimated $800 billion global industry; there remain significant technical hurdles to digitizing the intangible virtues of face-to-face handshakes and natural, serendipitous encounters.

Augmented reality will doubtlessly help modernize the industry when the technology is ready. In the meantime, more conventional platform solutions are adding layers of intimacy to the webinar-style formats now gaining traction. For example, large online events can be outfitted with one-on-one and small-group networking capabilities to simulate lobby mingling and ballroom table talk.  

There are several practical headwinds to this progress, notably that a global spread of delegates will have widely varying access capacities in terms of internet speed, browser, and device. While mixed online-offline events may offer a long-term resolution to these challenges, for now 100% virtual events are giving the industry a taste of what’s to come. 

“We see virtual events growing into a leading category in itself,” says Lalit Mangal, CEO of Airmeet. “In the future, most in-person events will definitely have a flavor of virtual participation, but virtual events, as a category, will grow big enough that we'll be developing deeper, native formats to support a variety of online events and interactions.”

Mangal, a serial entrepreneur who has worked with Indian education technology unicorn Unacademy, incorporated Airmeet in the US last year, but the start-up remains primarily Asia-focused. It has facilitated some 10,000 online events to date, 65% of which have been hosted by Asian groups. India is the lead market in the region, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan.

The surge in business that has come with COVID-19 piqued investor interest last week, with Sequoia Capital India leading a $12 million Series A round that also featured Redpoint Ventures, Accel Partners, Venture Highway, and Germany’s Global Founders Capital. “It’s been such a crazy ride for the last six months,” says Nishchal Dua, Airmeet’s director of marketing. “Three or four people have been joining every week.”

The currently 65-strong staff will expand to about 100 people within five months. The fully remote team operates out of six countries and is about 70% composed of engineering and design professionals. Going forward, they will focus on modularity in platform functionality and services such as ticketing, sponsor booths, and branding.

New language options will also be a major focus; the service is currently English only. Promotion has been mostly word-of-mouth to date, but paid marketing will enter the mix.

“Online events offer three core advantages in comparison to offline events – accessibility, scalability and efficiency,” says Mangal. “Virtual events and meetups allow people from around the world to join in remotely. These events aren't limited by geography or size and scale from 100 to 100,000 in participation. Online events are also cost-effective and allow a more decentralized participation from organizations and communities that aren’t professional event organizers.”

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Support services
• Early-stage
• Sequoia Capital
• India
• TMT