DoubleDutch Receives $19M in Series D Funding
August 24, 2014
Mobile event app developer DoubleDutch announced the close of $19 million in Series D funding led by Mithril Capital Management. Previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures and Bullpen Capital also participated, along with Singapore-based Enspire Capital. Ajay Royan, co-founder and managing general partner of Mithril, joins the DoubleDutch board.
In a press release announcing the funding, Lawrence Coburn, CEO of DoubleDutch is quoted as saying, “More than three years into our journey, we continue to see signs that the market for data driven event technology is massive, underserved, and ripe for a winner-take-all outcome." Coburn added "in Mithril, we have found a partner that matches our ambition and outlook. Our mutual goal is to build a durable, independent company that redefines the category."
DoubleDutch plans to use the $19 million in funding to expand its global presence, build out its technical teams to rapidly scale product deployment, and deliver new features to organizers.
Jennifer Hawkins, director of marketing for DoubleDutch, said they are hiring in all areas including engineering, sales and data science. “Company culture is very important to us at DoubleDutch. As we continue to expand - growing overseas as well as domestically - finding people who are passionate about our software and the problems we are tackling is crucial, said Hawkins.
DoubleDutch is looking to apply a chunk of this funding to the data side of the app. Hawkins wants event organizers to get the same realtime benefits and insights from their app data that marketers get from digital marketing such as AdWords. The ability to see what aspects of the event are working and what is not, which all comes back to the attendee experience.
The attendee experience is at the core of their product, and DoubleDutch intends to focus a large majority of their efforts into identifying and building ways to increase engagement and enhance overall attendee satisfaction.
Ajay Royan, Co-founder and Managing General Partner of Mithril is quoted as saying, "While legacy event companies focus on registration or logistics, DoubleDutch's platform uniquely preserves relationships that foster powerful, sustainable, long-term advantages. They are already working with some of the largest event organizers around the world, and this new investment will allow DoubleDutch to focus on identifying and pursuing enormous new opportunities."
What does the future of mobile event apps look like to DoubleDutch? In addition to the increase in demand for data, Hawkins said, “We believe that mobile, social functionality is going to dramatically improve the way people attend live events, not to mention how marketers execute, measure, and optimize them. The overarching goal is to produce mobile technology designed to maximize engagement, gather structured analytics, and unlock valuable insight in the same way that marketing automation and website analytics have done for the digital sphere.”
DoubleDutch is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Amsterdam, London, and Hong Kong to serve EMEA and Asia. The new funding will help them expand in those regions, particularly in Asia where local expertise is a top priority. They plan to continue to expand the company and services into new regions.
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