Top Carsome, Capital A execs back events-booking startup

Kuala Lumpur-based Eventda is an online bookings platform targeting the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry. / Photo credit: Eventda

Top executives from prominent Malaysian tech firms Capital A and Carsome are backing a Kuala Lumpur-based startup.

Eventda, which touts itself as an “online booking platform of meeting rooms, training rooms, event and co-working spaces,” counts Dabraj Singh and Ravi Shankar as advisers and shareholders. Singh is the chief strategy officer of AirAsia’s Super App, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital A. Shankar is Carsome’s chief marketing officer.

Eventda plans to raise money via equity crowdfunding platform Ata Plus. The startup is targeting the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry, where users can go online and book spaces for such events, according to the pitch deck seen by Tech in Asia.

Image credit: Eventda

According to company filings, Singh and Shankar joined Eventda as shareholders on June 11, 2021 and December 31, 2021, respectively.

The startup is run by Yovindra Kanezin and SP Sanjay. An aide to a former transport minister in Malaysia, Kanezin later took up a job at PayPal as a risk analyst before moving to Eventda full time. He is also an Eventda shareholder.

Sanjay is currently the growth marketing manager of AirAsia and digital marketing chief of Netart-India.

Eventda is looking to raise between 500,000 ringgit (US$117, 000) and 1.5 million ringgit (US$352, 000) through Ata Plus.

Despite incorporating in 2016, Eventda’s company filings show it made zero revenue for the years 2017 to 2019.

But in its pitch deck, Eventda said it had signed a “5+3” years contract with a Malaysian government agency, Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp). The deal involves providing HRD Corp with an e-venue platform, allowing companies certified by the agency to source and book rooms for training programs.

Eventda also claims it grew the business by securing partnerships and growing its inventory over the last year. It did so with only two full-time employees, two interns, and a cash-burn rate of 162,000 ringgit (US$38,000) for fiscal year 2020.