– WurkNow is a digital staffing and workforce management platform for hourly work.
– Company raised $10m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Newport Hayseed Group.
– The new investment will be used to optimize the company’s user base and product offering, including investments in new product development, staff growth and scaling its brand and market presence.

– Delegate Connect, a virtual/hybrid events platform, raised $10m in seed funding.
– The round was led by AirTree Ventures and joined by Skip Capital, TEN13 and Australian startup founders like LinkTree’s Alex Zaccaria and Go1’s Andrew Barnes.
– The capital will be used to build Delegate Connect’s teams in Melbourne, London and Norway, which enable it to handle events around the world, increasing headcount from 45 to more than 100 by December.
– It also plans to open a United States-based office soon.

– Hopin, the leading shared experiences platform that enables immersive and interactive connection from anywhere, announced it has raised $450m in Series D funding co-led by new investors Arena Holdings and Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors Adams Street Partners, Untitled Investments and XN in addition to existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, General Catalyst, GIC, IVP, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures, Slack Fund, Temasek and Tiger Global.
– Since February of 2020, Hopin has raised more than $1b.
– Hopin will use this capital to accelerate growth to further scale the platform and invest in the development of its multi-product platform technologies, including building new product suites.

– Forj, a Milwaukee WI-based virtual events and member experience platform, raised an undisclosed amount of funding.
– The round was led by Baird Capital with participation from GCI.
– The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth and develop its platform.

– PechaKucha, a Chicago, IL- Tokyo, Japan-based social storytelling platform, raised $2.7m in seed funding.
– The round was led by Muneaki Masuda, the founder and CEO of Culture Convenience Club Company, Limited (CCC), with participation from Lofty Ventures and Nameless Ventures and angel investors Jimmy Chamberlin (CEO of Blue J Strategies), Chuck Cohn (Founder and CEO of Nerdy), Chris Gladwin (Founder and CEO of Ocient), Paul Hsu (CEO and Founder of Decasonic), Brad Keywell (Co-Founder of Groupon, Founder and CEO of Uptake), Rob Solomon (Chairman of GoFundMe), and Vidisha Prasad (Managing Partner at Adya Partners), among others.
– The company intends to use the funds to scale headcount across product design, software development, and marketing to build new video and mobile capabilities, extend social connectivity features including group chat, enhance event hosting functions including ticketing and CRM, and grow its community of content creators.

– Curate is a Chicago, IL-based sales and operations platform for creative small businesses.
– The company raised $1.25m in seed funding.
– The round was led by OCA Ventures, with participation by Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, Cultivation Capital, and Stout Street Capital.
– The new investment will be used to double the company’s employee count from 16 to 32 with a focus on investing in infrastructure and product development.

– MeetingPlay has received a $75m investment from Sunstone Partners.
– Sunstone is a growth-oriented private equity firm focused on software and tech-enabled services companies.
– MeetingPlay offers a full suite of offerings for all types of conferences, events and meetings that allow for rich attendee experiences.
– The company believes that successful meetings and events are built upon meaningful connections formed during all phases of a hybrid, virtual or in-person event.
– The ultimate value that underpins the company’s software platform is connecting attendees to each other—as well as the meeting content—in a way that creates a unique and differentiated event, uplifting MeetingPlay’s client brands accordingly.

– Hopin from London develops a virtual and hybrid experiences platform.
– The company received an investment from LinkedIn via a Series C secondary round.
– The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
– The company will use this capital to continue investing in the development of its platform technologies in areas such as video and mobile.

– Punchbowl, the Company behind the critically acclaimed technology platform for events, holidays, and meaningful life memories, announced $5.0MM in financing from SG Credit Partners, Inc.
– The financing was used to acquire VidHug, a best-in-class group video platform.
– Punchbowl CEO Matt Douglas has been appointed a Board Observer at Qeepsake and a Board Director at pumpspotting.
– Punchbowl also launched Memento—a new platform to record, make, and preserve memories from the most important days in a family’s life.

– Interactio from Vilnius is a remote interpretation platform that provides remote participation for multilingual online and onsite meetings.
– The company raised $30m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Eight Roads Ventures and Storm Ventures with participation from Practica Capital, Notion Capital, Change Ventures and angels such as Jaan Tallinn and Young Sohn.
– The new funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth in Europe and US.

– Morressier from Paris develops a virtual conference and publishing platform for the scientific community.
– The company raised $7.5m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Owl Ventures with participation from existing investors Cherry Ventures and Redalpine.
– Existing investors in Morressier include industry experts Annette Thomas (The Guardian, Clarivate Analytics), Jan Reichelt (Mendeley, Kopernio), Martin Jagerhorn (AVEDAS), Jan Maier (AVEDAS), and Pote Lee (iGroup).

– Bevy has raised $40m at a $325m valuation to grow its platform for staging virtual events for enterprises.
– And it has also broken a diversity barrier by bringing 25 Black leaders on as investors.
– Palo Alto, California-based Bevy helps enterprises build, grow, and scale their global customer communities using its platform for virtual, in-person, and hybrid digital-physical events.
– The funding came from Accel Partners, LinkedIn, Qualtrics cofounder Ryan Smith, and Upfront Ventures.
– About 70% of the individuals participating in the round — representing 20% of total funds raised — are Black investors, including diversity pioneer James Lowry, Facebook board member Peggy Alford, and Beats by Dre marketing exec Omar Johnson.

– Esports firm NODWIN Gaming raises 164 Cr of equity investment from South Korean Gaming firm KRAFTON.
– Built on the world’s largest youth demographic and fuelled by affordable smartphone and data prices, esports has seen a surging demand which has led to NODWIN Gaming receiving a minority investment from South Korean Gaming firm KRAFTON.
– NODWIN Gaming intends to channelize these funds to accelerate the development of esports in South Asia, Middle East and Africa, support talent, provide better gaming infrastructure and technology and conceptualise, organize and execute a multitude of tournament IPs at the national and international level.
KRAFTON is one of the top gaming companies in South Korea and is the creators of intellectual properties and games such as PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS(PUBG)s, TERA, Golf King, Castle Burn among others.

– Hopin Raises $400M in Series C Funding.
– The round was co-led by new investors Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, and existing investor IVP, with participation from returning investors Coatue, DFJ Growth, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Global.
– The new investment will be used to accelerate growth, including scaling its operations, team and platform.

– Banzai announced today the successful closing of $15m in venture debt funding.
– The funding was led by Columbia Pacific Advisors and will enable Banzai to expand further to service the company’s ever-growing roster of customers, which includes companies like Nextiva, Red Hat, DataRobot, and Egnyte, along with over 3,000 other customers.
– In the past six months, Banzai has expanded their virtual event and webinar solutions through two critical acquisitions, including virtual event platform High Attendance and browser-based webinar solution Demio.
– The new funding aligns with Banzai’s near-term plan to reach profitability while maintaining a triple-digit growth rate.

– GeniusU is a Singapore based digital edtech platform.
– The company raised $1.4m in seed funding.
– The capital being raised would be used for continued global expansion and to grow the key leadership team.

– Hubilo, a platform that helps businesses of all sizes host virtual and hybrid events and gain access to real-time data and analytics, has raised $23.5 million in a series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
– The round saw participation from the U.K.’s Balderton Capital and Microsoft chair John W. Thompson, among other angel investors.
– The investment comes as people around the world prepare for a semblance of normality after a year of pandemic-induced social distancing.
– But while physical events will likely return in some form in the next year, online events are widely expected to stay — either exclusively or as part of a hybrid format.

– Grip, a London, UK-based market engagement platform, raised $13M in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Kennet Partners.
– The company intends to use the funds to expand digital offerings and territories.
– Grip provides a market engagement platform for virtual and in-person events working with the majority of the world’s largest event organisers including Reed Exhibitions, Messe Frankfurt, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch.