US-based live engagement marketing platform DoubleDutch has announced the acquisition of event registration provider Eventgrid for an undisclosed sum. The company has also promoted COO Bryan Parker to CEO, with current CEO and co-founder Lawrence Coburn moving to a new role as chief strategy officer. New Jersey-based Eventgrid has an estimated annual turnover of US$5m.
Coburn will focus on the launch of the Eventgrid + DoubleDutch platform to the market.
Eventgrid’s attendee registration system is used by customers including Sony and Northwestern Mutual and the acquisition expands DoubleDutch’s current offering into a full-fledged event marketing and attendee management system.
“Acquiring Eventgrid propels DoubleDutch into a new class of event technology as we bring together a modern mobile event app and a dynamic event registration and promotion system,” says new CEO Bryan Parker.
“The Eventgrid team is a natural complement to DoubleDutch, sharing a deep commitment to accessible and elegant design. I look forward to delivering a system that combines the ease of consumer grade software with the scalability, security, and stability of the enterprise to event professionals.”
Parker joined DoubleDutch earlier this year as COO. He has previously worked at healthcare company DaVita and at Affinity Media as COO & SVP corporate development.
“Bryan brings a remarkable skill set as a world class operator and business grower to DoubleDutch, and was instrumental in executing the acquisition of Eventgrid,” said Coburn. “I’m excited to partner with him to make a new class of event technology even stronger for our customers.”
DoubleDutch claims to have powered 5,000 events and to have over 2m users. With the acquisition of Eventgrid, it says it is becoming a full end-to-end event marketing system where customers can register attendees, create targeted email campaigns, communicate with attendees, collect data, and report on ROI after the event all within one integrated solution.
Niraj Shah, founder of Eventgrid, said: “We are excited to team up with a market leader, and expect the modernity and elegance of the combined systems to resonate strongly with the market.”
The DoubleDutch Live Engagement Platform powers events, conferences, and trade shows for 1,700 customers including Akamai, LinkedIn, BlackRock, Bosch, Novartis and UBM. The company has been named one of Deloitte’s 500 fastest growing companies in North America.
