Cvent, the world’s largest cloud-based provider of event management solutions, has announced the acquisition of Seed Labs, a company that develops applications for consumer and social events. The purchase of the company will catapult Cvent into the consumer events space with an offering that will help planners increase the popularity of their events and enhance the attendee experience before, during and after events.
Employees of the privately-owned company will remain in its present location of Austin, Texas.
“Cvent’s recent completion of a $136 million private equity round, one of the largest software funding rounds in recent U.S. history, puts us in a unique position to quickly scale our product offerings and expand into new markets,” said Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Cvent. “We selected Seed Labs after reviewing at least 20 solutions and hearing their name continuously come up in conversations with our clients and prospects. No doubt about it, they’re the top provider of apps for consumer events like the Kentucky Derby, so we plan to leverage their expertise to make our mark in this space.”
Founded by Todd Rogers and Rick Solner, Seed Labs builds mobile applications primarily for consumer events, such as festivals, concerts and sporting events. The company has completed apps for many high-profile events, including ESPN’s X Games, Preakness, the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the Country Music Association’s CMA Music Festival.
“Our new relationship with Cvent combines our skills in mobile apps for consumer events together with the best-known online event management company in the industry,” said Todd Rogers, CEO, Seed Labs. “Clients will now have a complete spectrum of coordinated services under one roof to increase the appeal, excitement and value of their events.”
Seed Labs specializes in creating native mobile applications for all major mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Its mobile applications have been downloaded by more than two million people and have consistently increased attendee participation and sponsor interest at hundreds of high-profile events.
“The app that Seed Labs has created for our festival is the most technologically advanced and interesting app we’ve ever come across,” said Dana Baker, executive director, Festival International de Louisiane. “We host about 400,000 people throughout the course of our five-day event, so keeping them consistently engaged is key. Not only has the Seed Labs app had a significant impact on the full engagement of our visitors, it has truly elevated the event experience beyond measure.”
Mobile applications built by Seed Labs offer a multitude of interesting features for attendees. For example, the app for ESPN’s X Games offers real-time streaming updates on scores, and the Kentucky Derby app provides attendees with background information on each horse and jockey. In addition, the apps keep attendees in the loop with immediate access to event information such as floor plans, schedules, lineups and more.
