Buoyed by strong demand for its industry-leading virtual and hybrid events platform from UAE organisations, particularly since the onset of the pandemic, Hubilo is set to further its investment in the country by establishing a dedicated local sales and support team, delivering content and support in Arabic, and partnering with UAE-based event management and AV production companies. The move follows the company’s recent announcement that it has raised US$23.5m in Series A funding, from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Balderton Capital, alongside several industry experts, including John Thompson, Chairman of the Board at Microsoft and Chris Schagen, Former CMO at Contentful.
With COVID-19 having permanently disrupted the event landscape, Hubilo has been quick to establish itself as a top contender in the virtual events space – an industry that is expected to grow from US$78 Billion to US$774 Billion within the decade. Last year, the company successfully partnered with the Dubai World Trade Centre to deliver GITEX 2020, the world’s largest hybrid technology event of 2020. Organisations in the UAE represent 10% of Hubilo’s customer base and contribute an impressive 8% of its global revenue. The company’s UAE clientele portfolio includes one of the country’s largest English newspapers and several of the largest event management companies.
“Dubai has been quick to adapt to the new normal and embrace virtual and hybrid events in order to maintain its position as the regional hub for the events industry. We see tremendous potential in this market and are eager to build on our success through the strategic utilisation of the resources now available to us through the recent round of funding,” said Vaibhav Jain, Founder and CEO at Hubilo. “We offer a distinct value proposition to UAE companies as our strategy, product features and platform intelligence are expanding the possibilities of what is achievable in the events space, and we’re continually delivering greater value for event organisers, sponsors and other stakeholders.”
Highlighting how the company has extended the capabilities of its offering in line with the requirements and preferences of UAE organisations, Jain added that Hubilo has integrated Zoom with its platform as the video conferencing solution is hugely popular with organisations and individuals in the Emirates. Looking ahead, he stated that the company will further strengthen its product and design teams as it prepares for the launch of Hubilo 2.0.
Since pivoting towards a virtual and hybrid events strategy, Hubilo’s platform has consistently recorded 50% month-over-month growth.Jain attributes this rapid and growing adoption to industry-leading features such as powerful analytics, impactful engagement and ease and scope of customisation. For example, Hubilo’s analytics delivers value across all stakeholder areas – organisers have access to strategic event engagement data; speakers get insightful data around their session quality, engagement rate and sponsors know exactly which visitor is prone to purchase from them via engagement with their booth.