Cvent was founded in September 1999 by Reggie Aggarwal. That same year it received $17 million in venture capital and grew its staff to 125 employees. Following the dot-com bubble burst and the September 11 attacks, Cvent faced near-bankruptcy and was forced to cut 80% of its staff. The company became profitable again by 2003. In 2011, Cvent was growing by 50% a year and received $136 million of funding from New Enterprise Associates in July 2011, which, at the time, was the largest investment in a U.S. software company since 2007. On June 13, 2012, Cvent announced the acquisition of Austin-based startup CrowdTorch, previously known as Seed Labs, for $4.2 million. Seven days later, it announced its acquisition of Portland-based application developer CrowdCompass for $10 million. Cvent filed an S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on July 8, 2013, proposing an initial public offering of 5.6 million shares. It went public on the New York Stock Exchange on August 9, 2013, at an initial price of $21. The company raised $117.6 million and received a market capitalization of more than a billion dollars. The IPO was referenced in regards to its use of the JOBS Act, which enabled the company to quickly offer an IPO. In 2016, the company was acquired by venture capital company Vista Equity Partners for $USD 1.65 billion. Ashok Trivedi, the co-founder of Mastech Digital and iGate was an early investor of the company. On June 5, 2018, Cvent announced that it had acquired Kapow, an online booking platform for venues and experiences. On October 16, 2018, Cvent announced that it had acquired Social Tables, an event diagramming, seating and collaboration platform based in Washington, D.C. On May 22, 2019, Cvent announced that it had acquired Wedding Spot, a wedding venue sourcing platform that allows users to find venues based on budget, location, style and guest count. At the time of the acquisition, Wedding Spot, which was founded in 2013 in San Francisco, California, had partnerships with over 12,000 venues across the United States. On June 10, 2019, Cvent announced that it had acquired mobile event technology provider DoubleDutch.
Software and services
In July 2000 Cvent introduced its first SaaS product, a web-based tool for event planners to manage invitations and collect registration fees. In 2006, it introduced a product for conducting online surveys, which was followed by the introduction of the Cvent Supplier Network two years later. The Supplier Network is a free, online marketing place that connects meeting planners with venues and services. In 2009, the company began offering professional services. An app development tool, CrowdTorch, was launched in 2009. Cvent also produces a Destination Guide, a free, online, 8,000-page travel guide designed for meeting planners with information about 800 different destinations. A "Strategic Meetings Management" helps users manage budgets.
