Lightspeed, Balderton lead Series A round in conference platform Hubilo

Hubilo, a virtual and hybrid events platform, has raised $23.5 million (about Rs 170 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and London-based Balderton Capital.

Other participating investors in this round include a clutch of high-profile individuals such as Microsoft board chairman John Thompson and former Contentful executive Chris Schagen, Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based Hubilo said in a statement.

This development comes after Hubilo in October 2020 raised $4.5 million (about Rs 32.5 crore) in a seed funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, former LinkedIn India CEO Nishant Rao, Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle and Helpshift CEO Abinash Tripathy.

Hubilo, operated by Hubilo Technologies Inc. in the US, was set up by Vaibhav Jain and Mayank Agarwal. The company says its platform offers software that provides additional features such as dedicated tables and private rooms as well as one-click integrations with platforms such as HubSpot and Salesforce.

The startup says it has seen a growth rate of over 10,000% in less than a year. It will use the fresh capital to accelerate the development of its platform as well as build out its product and design teams in India. It will also scale its go-to-market teams in the US and Europe, Hubilo said.

“As Hubilo’s first institutional backers, we are extremely pleased to welcome new world-class investors and board members to the team as we shift into an even higher gear to dominate virtual and hybrid events in a world that is emerging out of the pandemic,” said Hemant Mohapatra, India partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm that focuses on disruptive trends in sectors such as enterprise, consumer and health.

In April 2020, Lightspeed said it raised more than $4 billion (Rs 28,977 crore) across three funds to invest in early- and growth-stage startups globally. In August, its India arm said it had raised $275 million (about Rs 1,992 crore) for its new fund.

Lightspeed’s portfolio companies across the India and US markets include Docker, OYO Rooms, Darwinbox, Zetwerk, Yellow Messenger and Udaan.

Meanwhile, Balderton Capital has been active in the European markets for more than 20 years, according to its website. It has backed at least 220 companies and has raised over $3 billion (about Rs 21,738 crore) for investments.

Companies that the firm has invested in include Berlin-based Frontier Car Group, London-based betting exchange BetFair, Stockholm-based Lifesum and UK-based Rakho