[Funding alert] Airmeet raises $12M Series A investment led by Sequoia Capital India, Redpoint Ventures

Virtual event organisation platform Airmeet has raised $12 million Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital India and Redpoint Ventures. Existing investors Accel Partners India, Venture Highway, Global Founders Capital (GFC), and Gokul Rajaram (Caviar Lead at Doordash) also participated in the round. 

With this fund raise, the team plans to expand to a global audience. In a press statement shared by the company, Lalit Mangal, Co-founder, Airmeet, said, 

"Our mission is to make virtual events so effective and engaging that it should appear archaic to organise an on-ground event. We are already seeing an irreversible behaviour change among event organisers and an exponential rise in, what we call, 'digitally native events'.”

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The platform claims to have seen close to 2000 percent growth in the last quarter. The team adds this growth has been purely organic, with the platform gaining one new customer per hour. By July 2020, Airmeet claims to have hosted over 10,000 events on its platform. 

The startup now aims to power over 1,000 events per day. Speaking of the investment, Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India LLP, said, 

"Covid-19 has accelerated a permanent behavioural shift across many industries. With digitisation of largely traditional spaces leapfrogging by years, the $800+ billion global offline events space is up for grabs. There is massive potential for players who drive the industry’s transition towards online-events."

"Airmeet’s mission is to create a global platform to enable millions of community managers and event organisers across the world to engage with and expand their audience. And with Lalit and team’s focus, execution and innovative thinking, they are strongly placed to achieve their goal.” 

At present, Airmeet has empowered event organisers to run a variety of events, meetups, job fairs, virtual team cafes, conventions, resource fairs by universities, and tech summits. 

Astasia Myers, Investor at Redpoint, said in a press statement,

“Airmeet’s platform creates engaging digital experiences that emphasise interactivity. From the virtual tables to networking lounges to real-time audience reactions, Airmeet mirrors the community spirit of an in-person event. We are thrilled to be a part of the journey and very excited for what’s to come.” 

Founded in 2019 by Lalit, Co-founder of Commonfloor, along with other former CommonFloor executives Vinay Jaasti and Manoj Singh, Airmeet also aims to accelerate the tech development of its platform and increase the team from 60 to 100. It has successfully powered virtual events for professional communities like Microsoft for Startups, the Linux Foundation, and major educational institutions like the Florida International University.