Meetings and events technology provider Cvent and Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company, announced their merger agreement and plan to go public upon closing.
The combined company will operate as Cvent Holding Corp., and is expected to trade under the ticker symbol “CVT.”
The transaction values Cvent at an initial enterprise value of $5.3 billion, and will provide Cvent with $801 million in cash so the company can accelerate product innovation, increase research and development, reduce debt and expand go-to market activities. Cvent plans to expand within the $30 billion in-person, virtual and hybrid events market.
As Cvent CEO and Founder Reggie Aggarwal noted, the meetings and events industry has gone through a rapid digital transformation over the last 18 months during the pandemic. Events became digital thanks to virtual and online experineces, and Cvent heavily invest in expanding its virtual event capabilities.
“Now, we are engaging in a hybrid world, as in-person events resume, and virtual events remain prominent. With the increased digitization of our industry, events are ’always on’ and have fewer boundaries,” Aggarwal said. “My management team and our nearly 4,000 employees around the world are excited for the opportunity to continue to innovate and enable our customers to leverage Cvent across their Total Event Program.”
Dragoneer Founder and Managing Partner Marc Stad said the company is excited to join forces with Cvent and help position the company for growth as it goes public. Stad expects the world to move into a hybrid environment that combines elements of in-person and virtual events, and organizations to turn to Cvent for its solutions that provide optionality, flexibility and reach.
“Moreover, Cvent’s hospitality cloud business is a differentiator that benefits from powerful network effects — a key tenet that we look for in many of our investments at Dragoneer,” Stad added. “Cvent is led by an exceptional management team with years of industry experience and a strong track record of profitable growth. We believe the $801M of capital expected to be raised from this transaction will enable management to double down on product development and further cement Cvent’s position as a leader in this software category.”
Cvent provides solutions like its event cloud, a platform that allows organizations to maximize engagement with their attendees, generate and qualify leads, deepen relationships with customers and build brand loyalty and advocacy. It also serves as the system of record for event and engagement data collected across internal and external events an organization hosts or attends, referred to as the “Total Event Program.” It also has a hospitality cloud which allows hoteliers to streamline their processes, connect with event planners, increase group business revenue and benchmark their performance.