Gather, the leading event management software platform for restaurants and venues, announced today that it has acquired EVENTup, a top online marketplace for event venues. Together, Gather and EVENTup will enable over 12,500 restaurants, event spaces, and venues to grow their businesses by connecting them to millions of planners and consumers across the nation.
“Like Gather, EVENTup leads its field and has made significant strides in improving and simplifying the way restaurants and other venues plan events,” says Nick Miller, co-founder and CEO of Gather. “Together, we’ll be able to build on our collective momentum and redefine the planning process—driving the industry forward and helping our customers grow their events business.”
More than 5,000 restaurants and venues across the U.S. already use Gather’s software to manage and simplify their event bookings process and, in 2017, planned and managed over 700,000 events, grossing more than $1 billion. This acquisition will provide opportunities for Gather customers to source new events business through listings in EVENTup’s unique online marketplace. EVENTup currently features over 7,500 venues in 300 U.S. cities and covers all types of event spaces, including art galleries, lofts and warehouses, banquet halls, rooftop bars and conference centers.
“We are thrilled to join the Gather team who, like us, is dedicated to digitizing the manual processes that make planning events difficult for venues today,” adds Jayna Cooke, co-founder and GM of EVENTup. “We are excited to work together to continue making events easy to plan and enjoyable to manage.”
EVENTup will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Gather, which will continue to offer its event management platform to restaurants and venues across the U.S. Gather will remain headquartered in Atlanta, and EVENTup’s main office will remain in Chicago. Moving forward, Gather and EVENTup will explore opportunities to launch complementary offerings, and accelerate their product roadmap to address the evolving needs of their growing customer base.
