In the midst of a high-growth, successful year, event management software startup Gather has made moves to expand further into the events industry — investing in further product development and growing its employee base. To do this, Gather has formalized a strategic investment with enterprise software data-focused investment firm Vista Equity Partners.
“We’re thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Vista Equity Partners to help us continue to grow and scale Gather as the leading event management software,” says CEO Nicholas Miller. “This capital allows us to hire more team members, primarily in sales and engineering, so we can keep making our product even better and push forward with expanding our customer base.”
Founded in 2013, Gather largely grew organically after releasing their private event management software. The software offers a more effective way for businesses, right now mostly restaurants and event venues, to manage event reservations, catering, employees, and prospective leads.
In 2016, the startup saw the launch of their mobile app based on customer feedback, a tripling of their workforce, and an office move to the heart of Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.
“Gather’s innovative approach to restaurant and venue event management creates a powerful platform with intrinsic value for customers seeking expansion of their event programs,” Brian Sheth, co-founder and President of Vista Equity Partners said in a statement. “Our partnership creates a tremendous opportunity to strengthen Gather’s leadership position within a dynamic and growing market eager to adopt collaborative, high ROI software solutions.”
After closing a $2.5M Series A round early in 2016, the startup went on to facilitate events for more than 3,500 U.S. restaurants and venues. It’s now on track to power $1 billion in event sales by the end of 2017, doing it all with a 99 percent client renewal rate and 98 percent customer satisfaction rate.
“We’ve seen great success year after year at Gather, and this new partnership will help us move and work even faster to continue transforming the events industry,” says Miller.
