There’s a lot involved in event planning – booking venues, finding speakers and caterers, marketing and sales, and having it all come together at once. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, event coordinators have the fifth most stressful job in the world!
Several European startups are looking to turn this around by innovating in the event space. New startups include event planning platforms, marketplaces to book everything from venues to entertainment and food, audiovisual services, networking apps, and more.
So if you’re planning an event in the upcoming months, be sure to check out the following European startups that are making events better – and the lives of event planners so much easier.
Tame – Founded in 2016 in Copenhagen, Tame is an all-in-one event planning platform that is already being used by event planners in over 70 countries. According to the startup, 90% of event planners are still stuck using cumbersome spreadsheets, and Tame has set out to change that. With its sleek platform, event planners can build their event programme, collaborate with coworkers and external partners, and manage speakers, partners and suppliers, tasks, and ticket sales all in one place. The startup has raised two small funding rounds in 2018 for a total of €617k, which it is spending on product development, increasing its sales and marketing initiatives, and scaling geographically.
evvnt – Looking to promote your event? Look no further. This London-based startup seeks to be the market leader in online event marketing. When you submit your event to its platform, evvnt promotes it across all channels – claiming to reach a potential audience of 40 million people. So far, the startup counts 24k customers, and has promoted 208k events across 4.5k event listing sites, as well as on social media and the calendars of major publications such as The Financial Times and The Economist. Evvnt also works to improve your event’s SEO ranking, so that more people can find your event through Google searches. Event planners can track their analytics, and save lots of time that they would otherwise spend promoting events manually.
Grip – Founded in 2014, London-based Grip is a networking app for events. Its AI-based matchmaking technology gives people personalised recommendations for who they should meet at any given event, taking the guesswork out of who to approach, or what to talk to them about. Through the app, over 300,000 connections have been made across 200 events in the last two years. We interviewed Grip’s founder, Tim Groot, about the company in December.
Add to Event – Founded in 2013 and based in London, this startup helps you find suppliers for your event – from food trucks to party tents, hot tubs, audiovisual equipment, loos, DJs, caterers, photographers, entertainers and more. Submit a request for any of these services on its platform, and receive a personalised quote from a range of local suppliers, review and message each company, and hire the best one for your event.
Interactio – Vilnius-based Interactio is a real-time audio broadcasting and translation solution for conferences, houses of worship, and overflow audiences. It doesn’t require expensive conference equipment – event planners just need a headset and laptop for each language, an interpreter, and stable Internet. Listeners can then stream the audio from anywhere in the world – they just need to download the free app. Founded in 2014, the startup received €580k in a seed round in 2017.
By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!
