We’re thrilled to be leading a $10m seed round in Melbourne-based Delegate Connect, an end-to-end platform for virtual and hybrid events.

New world, new problem

Events have been shifting online for years now, from large conferences to smaller webinars — but it wasn’t until COVID-19 that things really started to accelerate. Over the last 18 months, the pandemic has transformed how we interact with each other - forcing meetings, whiteboard sessions, conferences, training and even Friday drinks to move online.

Some of these interactions have been easier to shift than others. Large scale events and conferences are one of the more complex ones. It requires a combination of operational and technical coordination — ranging from digital event construction to technical broadcasting — in order to provide an immersive and interactive experience for thousands of virtual delegates.

This is where Delegate Connect comes in. Their software platform supports clients before, during, and after their events with features such as registration, live broadcasting, live user support, and analytics. The product takes the stress out of a taxing process and ensures that their clients can pull off a world-class virtual or hybrid experience every time.

And customers absolutely love the solution. The company has grown rapidly over the past two years — serving hundreds of events from 100+ clients that range from large corporations to smaller non-profit associations. More importantly, we spoke to a handful of their customers and received some of the most positive customer references we’ve ever heard.

“We looked at most of the solutions in the market and Delegate Connect stood out by far. The product had all the features & integrations we needed whilst still being very very easy to use”

“DC is a game-changer. I’ve referred them to other organisations I know and all of them say the exact same thing.”

It’s difficult to predict exactly what events and gatherings will look like in a post COVID world. But, it’s clear that 1) the shift in behaviour induced by the pandemic means that events will not look the same as they did before, and 2) innovative tech solutions such as Delegate Connect will play a leading role in facilitating that shift.

Right team — ‘founder-market fit’

As early-stage investors, we often look for signs of founder-market fit. Specifically, we ask ourselves questions such as “do these founders have a unique insight into the problem or market they’re going after?” and “are they working on something they have lived and breathed in previous experiences?”.

When we first met Delegate Connect’s founders and lifelong friends — Jordan and Jacob — the founder-market fit was crystal clear.

Together, they have 20+ years of events management experience under their belt. Jordan scaled an events services business to 400+ employees and 1,000+ clients before selling the company in 2017. Jacob has been leading the technical production of large scale conferences for more than 10 years, playing a vital role in the growth of one of Australia’s leading audio visual production companies for large-scale events.

They’ve had hands-on experience with the problems their clients face on a day to day basis. They understand the intricacies of delivering a seamless event end-to-end — from allowing registrations to have different content restrictions to broadcasting 30+ virtual concurrent live streams from a venue, to providing post-event data insights.

On top of that, they have surrounded themselves with the right people to take the company to the next level:

‘We are extremely fortunate to be backed by an incredible team of experienced, passionate and committed people. Collectively, our team has over 100 years of event experience, and we have created a culture within the business where everyone genuinely cares about our clients” — Jordan (CEO)

“From our product team to our customer care team, through to our corporate function, we have hand-picked people who align with our values and the end result is absolutely incredible. To wake up every morning and know that we are genuinely helping an industry and enabling the future of events, that is a special feeling”. — Jacob (CIO)

With a comprehensive set of experience spread across a growing team, the team are now set on scaling their international expansion and further building out their product roadmap.

As you can tell, we’re super excited to be backing Delegate Connect, along with our good friends at Skip Capital & TEN13.