The story
Cvent was founded in September 1999 by Reggie Aggarwal. At its founding, Cvent had an initial staff of six individuals working in technology, business, and marketing. Prior to co-founding Cvent in 1999, Reggie served as the president of the Indian CEO Network.
In 1999, Cvent received US$17 million in venture capital and grew its staff to 125 employees.
In April 2001, Cvent had 300 customers, including MCO WorldCom, McDonald's, Princeton University, University of Virginia, Ernst & Young, and Hughes Network Systems.
Following the dot-com bubble burst and the September 11 attacks, Cvent faced near-bankruptcy and was forced to cut 80% of its staff. The company became profitable again in 2003.
In 2011, Cvent was growing by 50% a year and received $136 million of funding from New Enterprise Associates in July 2011, which, at the time, was the largest investment in a U.S. software company since 2007.
Cvent filed an S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on July 8, 2013, proposing an initial public offering of 5.6 million shares. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on August 9, 2013, at an initial price of $21. Cvent raised $117.6 million and received a market capitalization of over $1 billion. The IPO was referenced in regard to its use of the JOBS Act, which enabled the company to quickly offer an IPO.
In 2016, the company was acquired by venture capital company Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion. Ashok Trivedi, the co-founder of Mastech Digital and iGate was an early investor in the company. After closing its acquisition of Cvent, Vista Equity Partners announced it would merge Cvent with Lanyon, another meetings-technology firm owned by Vista, branding them both under the Cvent name.
Following the close of a merger deal with Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Cvent went public on the Nasdaq Global Market. on December 9, 2021. In March 2023, Cvent agreed to be taken private again by Blackstone Inc. in a $4.6 billion deal that includes a significant minority investment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cvent, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7