Eventovate, a cloud services company focused on the hotel sector and set up by two returned emigrants from Sligo that last year made the TechCrunch Euro Top 100 list, has just completed a funding round of €700,000.
Eventovate’s investment includes funding from Bank of Ireland Start-up and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund managed by Delta Partners; High Potential Start-up Funding from Enterprise Ireland; and funding from the AIB Seed Capital Fund managed by Dublin Business Innovation Centre.
Brothers Jonathan and Jason Ruane have developed a pioneering, cloud-based software solution for hotels, to enable them to increase revenue and manage costs specifically within their events business, such as weddings. This award-winning technology provides a cohesive set of applications for both the hotel and its event customers.
The company will use the funds to drive further business growth in a European market estimated to be worth more than €260m per annum.
The wanderers return
Before setting up the company, Jonathan and Jason were both working internationally with large multinationals – Jason with Intel in Israel and Jonathan with Proctor & Gamble in London – before returning to Dublin to start the company in 2008. Eventovate developed the software over an 18-month period and was launched in 2009.
After signing customer contracts worth more than €150,000 in its first three months in Ireland, the company started looking to the international market and sold to its first UK customer in January 2010. It is continuing to expand in the Irish market, but expects that more than 85pc of its predicted €4.5m revenue in 2012 will come from Europe and the US.
As part of this latest funding round, both Shay Garvey, director at Delta Partners and Alex Hobbs of Dublin Business Innovation Centre, will now join the board of Eventovate, lending their expertise and experiences to support the business in its further development.
Eventovate’s software platform has two core functions. The first is to provide CRM, direct marketing, business intelligence and process automation to the hotel – all entirely focused on its events business. This includes enquiry tracking, customer conversion tools, task automation, performance analysis, automated surveys and management reporting. This means a hotel can radically improve the way in which it manages its wedding business – it can convert more customers, reduce delivery costs and understand more about how well it is performing and why.
The second function (marketed as Moposa) automates and supports key elements of the event management process for event customers. For example, a bride and groom can arrange their reception seating plans, manage their RSVPs, track their budget, print guest driving directions, develop a wedding website or collate the photos and videos taken by all their guests.
“We are pleased to invest in a company like Eventovate,” said Garvey. “They have already proven themselves as a pioneer in cloud computing within their industry and are now well positioned for the substantial growth this technology is certain to experience.
“Eventovate is an indigenous Irish company operating in the new smart economy. It has the potential to create dozens of highly skilled jobs and to develop a substantial international business from its Irish base.”
Photo: From left to right, brothers Jonathan and Jason Ruane
