Virtual events startup Hubilo secures seed funding in Lightspeed-led round

Virtual events platform Hubilo has raised US$4.5 million in a seed round of funding led by venture capital firm Lightspeed.

Photo credit: Hubilo

Tech angel investors also participated in the round, including Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham, former LinkedIn India CEO Nishant Rao, Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle, and Helpshift CEO Abinash Tripathy.

Based in the US, Hubilo provides a platform for companies to hold virtual and hybrid events. It provides features such as interactive live sessions, one-on-one meeting lounges, audience engagement and networking opportunities, and virtual sponsor booths.

“Southeast Asia is already 12% of our sales, growing at 25% month-on-month and we are looking to aggressively scale our business in the region,” said Hubilo founder and CEO Vaibhav Jain.

The company said it expects to exceed US$10 million in bookings run rate and host over 1 million participants from April through the next few months.

Some of its customers include the United Nations, Roche, Informa Markets, Fortune, Tech in Asia, Infocomm Asia, and GITEX. Hubilo claims that an average client has returned to host at least four new events within six months. This is especially so in markets such as the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and APAC (Asia Pacific).

“The exponential traction and consistent repeat and expanded usage that Hubilo is seeing demonstrates strong customer loyalty, all of whom had superlative things to say about the platform,” said Lightspeed partner Hemant Mohapatra.

Lightspeed has been supporting early-stage startups globally since 2000. In September, the VC firm launched Lightspeed Southeast Asia, which aims to invest in the region’s enterprise and consumer sectors.