Travel isn’t just about how you get to your destination — it’s as much about what you do when you’re there. Events, meetings, and conferences are a common “why” behind millions of trips each year. Companies use them to not only cement long-term customer relationships, but also increasingly as acquisition tools — particularly so amid a rise in remote working and digital communications.
Today’s event planning technology however is outdated and fragmented. It hasn’t modernized with its audience or user base. The many steps required to host an event are spread across dozens of websites and channels, and the planning process can be so time-consuming that even a simple business meeting or small dinner might take weeks to plan. The event planning industry is poised for disruption and rapid growth, yet has been trapped by its own design. Until now.
We’re excited to announce today our investment in Bizly — a fast-growing enterprise SaaS platform that helps teams create powerful and memorable events, no matter the level of planning expertise. Bizly hosts everything you need to build a great company event, start-to-finish, in one single platform. You can compare and negotiate directly with over 20,000 venues and vendors; develop guest lists and send custom-crafted invitations; and collaborate with team members to project manage and work together on all aspects of the planning process.
Joining us in this round is Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Hone Capital, and others. We’re impressed by Bizly’s early customer traction and team expansion, including the recent addition of industry luminary Kevin Iwamoto as chief strategy officer.
Bizly maximizes the value and impact of in-person work gatherings and makes the planning process seamless, easy, and more enjoyable. The software increases efficiency for planning and helps anyone be a great event curator. Data and analytics tools automate company processes and drive continuous improvement to meet the ultimate objective of the event or meeting, while keeping costs down.
Our investment in Bizly is an investment in the “why” behind much of today’s travel and we look forward to partnering with CEO Ron Shah, Kevin, and the rest of the team on this next chapter of their growth!
Alex Kaufman is an investment principal at JetBlue Technology Ventures.
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