In 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Eventtus, the Cairo-based firm that creates interactive event apps that allow organisers to engage attendees by enabling them to customise their event schedule through an interactive agenda, announced that it was building a disruptive online event-hosting platform, after raising an undisclosed round of investment from Hala Ventures, Algebra Ventures and DAAL VC. One year on, the events platform has been acquired by the US-based events company, Bevy. The deal’s value was not disclosed, although Eventtus has generated over $2.6 million in fundraising since its inception in 2012, indicating a higher acquisition price.

“Today I’m so excited to announce that Eventtus has been acquired by Bevy! Bevy is focused on enabling businesses to build community and the acquisition allows for us to meet attendees where they are at and how they prefer to experience events. We’re very excited to be joining forces with Bevy.

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As my co-founder, Nihal, and I attended entrepreneurship events, we found it hard to recognize and connect with our fellow attendees. We agreed this was a problem we wanted to help solve. We founded Eventtus in 2012 to mobilize events through event planning, networking, and ticketing functionalities within a mobile app,” says co-founder Mai Medhat. 

Here Is What You Need To Know 

• Through the acquisition, more than 20 of Eventtus’ engineers have been added to the Bevy team, including Egyptian co-founders Mai Medhat and Nihal Fares. 

• The acquisition also adds a mobile in-person conference app and various additional interaction capabilities for participants to Bevy’s event technology stack. Customers will have the most comprehensive, end-to-end event management solution to manage and scale their virtual, hybrid, and in-person event programs once Bevy’s enterprise community event engine is incorporated.

• In 2017, the startup successfully closed a US$2 million funding round led by Algebra Ventures and 500 Startups.

Why The Acquisition Was Made

The acquisition, just like the recent acquisitions of South Africa’s Giraffe by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and Nigeria’s Paystack by US payments company, Stripe, was aided by a long-standing strategic partnership between the parties. 

“Startup Grind and CMX Summit, two conferences organized by Bevy, have been our customers for the past four years. Derek Andersen is the CEO of both Bevy and Startup Grind, and we met during the Startup Grind global conference last year.

The Bevy team knows Eventtus well and has been using the app and other Eventtus products over the past four years, which was a great testimonial to the product. When we met, Derek and I started talking about the industry and partnership opportunities. One thing led to the other, and it was clear that our two organizations are very similar; same values, company culture, and products that complement each other. Together, we can serve our clients better and have a unique offering to events and communities,” Medhat said.

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“What’s unique about Bevy is how they thread events together. They’ve built a powerful community event engine that helps enterprise teams create a sense of community among their customers, prospects, partners and employees. This is what all other event platforms are missing. And it’s the key to unlocking global scale and growth” Medhat added. 

Speaking on the acquisition, Derek Andersen, CEO and co-founder of Bevy said: 

“Enterprises have invested in creating connected communities for their customers, employees and partners. Events are not only an extension of these communities but also provide an important channel for driving ongoing engagement. With this acquisition, we can now further advance our leadership role in enterprise events by delivering an end-to-end white-labelled event system of record that helps enterprise leaders build even stronger and more engaged communities.”

A Big Exit For Previous Investors Such As Algebra Ventures

Previous investors in Eventtus include Algebra Ventures, 500 Startups as well as Hala Ventures, and DAAL VC. All investors have now exited by virtue of the acquisition. 

“At Algebra we always believed Mai and Nihal had the potential to play a role in shaping the global events tech space through Eventtus,” said Ziad Mokthar, a Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures. “Bevy would provide a perfect home to deliver on this potential. We are very happy for both teams.”

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded in 2012 by Mai Medhat and Nihal Fares, Eventtus is an-all-in-one platform for events ticketing, event management and apps for events.

The company creates interactive event apps that allow organizers to engage participants by allowing them to customize their event schedules via an interactive agenda, as well as providing them with rapid updates via a social media feed and opportunities to network with other attendees.

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Last year, as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, physical events around the world were canceled till further notice, prompting Eventtus to begin constructing a virtual event platform to help event organizers cope.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer