Cvent Makes First Acquisitions Under Blackstone Ownership
January 22, 2024
In its first deals since the $4.6 billion acquisition by Blackstone last year, Cvent has acquired Jifflenow, a B2B 1:1 and group appointments scheduling solution, and iCapture, a lead capture solution. With these acquisitions, Cvent’s goal is to offer enhanced capabilities to enable sales and marketing teams to improve trade show performance and ROI through automated appointment scheduling and universal lead capture.
Related: Blackstone to Acquire Cvent for $4.6 Billion
“Over the past nearly 25 years, we’ve helped power global meetings and events programs, and these acquisitions highlight our continued commitment to innovation and delivering the best-in-class solutions our customers need to drive their businesses forward,” said Cvent CEO and Founder Reggie Aggarwal. “We’ve known and respected Hari [Shetty] and Brady [Roberts] since the inception of both Jifflenow and iCapture, and we are extremely excited to welcome their teams to Cvent.”
Backstory: Headquartered in Tysons, Va., Cvent reported it had more than 4,800 employees and 22,000 customers worldwide as of Dec. 31, 2023. The Cvent event marketing and management platform offers software solutions for online event registration, venue selection, event marketing and management, virtual and onsite solutions and attendee engagement.
Big picture: In addition to Cvent, Blackstone also owns a number of other trade show and event companies, including Encore (formerly PSAV), Clarion Events, ANDMORE (formerly International Market Centers) and Foundry (formerly IDG).
Looking ahead: Cvent’s enhanced trade show and conference solutions will be featured at the company’s user and industry conference, Cvent CONNECT 2024, which will be held June 10-13 in San Antonio, Texas.
Here’s a closer look at both companies acquired by Cvent and what the acquisitions mean for trade shows, corporate events and exhibitors.
Deeper Dive: Jifflenow
Looking back: Founded in 2007 by Hari Shetty and Rajesh Setty, Jifflenow was launched to automate the scheduling, management and analytics of B2B meetings at events and marketing campaigns. Their goal: transform customer meeting management from an offline workflow to an automated, streamlined, online process with measurable results and actionable insights.
How it works: The cloud-based platform offers outbound booking and inbound request processes, making it easy for its customers (exhibiting companies and corporate events) to generate more high-quality B2B engagements. The enterprise-class SaaS includes on-demand reports, multi-level security, GDPR compliance and integrations with leading CRM, marketing automation, video conferencing and event management applications. Jifflenow’s technology gives organizations an easy way to ensure executives and sales teams are maximizing their time on the trade show floor by meeting with the most important customers and prospects.
Why it matters: Jifflenow not only maximizes the number of important appointments that are held, but also enables previously offline conversations to be tracked and actioned after the event ends. In April 2023, Jifflenow partnered with Cvent to offer enhanced product integration. Jifflenow has more than 190 customers who use the event tech to book thousands of meetings at events and trade shows every year, according to Jifflenow’s website.
What they are saying: “We’re excited to leverage Cvent’s global scale, research and development resources and robust partner ecosystem to continue to innovate to help organizations capitalize on their trade shows and conferences,” said Hari Shetty, CEO and founder of Jifflenow.
Deeper Dive: iCapture
Looking back: Launched in 2012 in Boise, Idaho, iCapture Co-Founder Brady Roberts was driven by the challenges associated with traditional lead capturing methods at trade shows, sparking the development of a more efficient, digital solution. Over the years, the company has honed its expertise in turning event interactions into actionable data that drives business growth.
How it works: iCapture's solutions are tailored to handle all event sizes — from large international trade shows to smaller networking events. The platform's easy-to-use and consistent system, combined with its integrations with major CRM and Marketing Automation Systems, enables sales and marketing teams to convert trade show leads more efficiently and effectively with minimal manual effort.
Why it matters: By acquiring iCapture, Cvent now helps organizations get more out of every trade show with a consistent, customizable and easy-to-use universal lead capture solution. By eliminating fragmented, unreliable lead capture tools that have to be re-learned from show to show, organizations can boost lead volume with a standardized system that meets their unique lead capture needs
What they are saying: “iCapture was founded nearly 12 years ago with a single goal in mind: helping organizations capture those engagements and turn them into revenue-generating opportunities,” Roberts said. “With organizations investing more in trade shows to reconnect with customers and prospects, now’s a great time to join the Cvent team and add our best-in-class solutions to their platform.”
Want to know more about Cvent? Read previous TSNN news stories on Cvent here.
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