London-based VenueScanner is a platform that allows event organisers to book venues throughout the UK for meetings, conferences, weddings, parties, and everything in between. The startup has just raised €1.1 million to roll out its marketplace for booking venues.
Founded in 2015 by Benjy Meyer and Rebecca Kelly, VenueScanner aims to become the number one events marketplace worldwide, changing the way we find and book spaces through its easy-to-use platform for hosts and organisers.
The startup will use the funding to develop much-needed tools for the events industry, such as dynamic pricing and real-time availability, as well as to expand internationally.
Investor Tom Singh commented: “We’re excited to continue to back the VenueScanner team. They’ve scaled a unique approach to innovating in the events market, with 18k spaces live across 15 UK cities. The range of companies using VenueScanner for finding event space, from Deloitte to Lululemon, is testament to the product. The tech that they are now creating will be groundbreaking for underutilised real estate and their revenue potential. VenueScanner is a true example of an online business, making real world businesses work better.”
By providing them the opportunity to host events, VenueScanner’s service has helped struggling businesses such as local pubs, which are currently closing at a rate of 18 per week in the UK.
William Knowles-Mofford, owner of Looking Glass Cocktail Club, said: “I feel like any business it’s very difficult to get clients through the door, and a company like VenueScanner whose business it is to collect these clients and to deliver these clients to you is very useful from the venue’s point of view, and I would say since we started working with VenueScanner, we’ve definitely seen an increase in sales.”
Rebecca Kelly, founder and CEO of VenueScanner, said: “I’m very proud of all the team’s hard work. The business we’re driving to venues is growing 30% month on month, we’ve stuck to our e-commerce guts and worked tirelessly on user experience, resulting in us improving our conversion rate 5X.”
