Events.com to Enter NYSE Via SPAC

LA JOLLA – Events.com has scored a ticket into the public market.

The La Jolla-based event management technology platform announced last week a merger with special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp. II that will put Events.com on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RSVP.”

The transaction puts Events.com’s pre-money equity value at $314 million and the proposed combination could reach an enterprise value of $399 million if RSVP has a $434 million equity value when the deal closes, based on an estimated 43.4 million shares outstanding, and $35 million of net cash.

The deal positions Events.com for further growth in the $936 billion event industry, according to the company’s leadership.

“We really do think there is a significant opportunity in this space that we’re addressing with our product,” said Events.com co-founder and CEO Mitch Thrower. “The industry at large has been plagued by a number of disparate solutions that don’t play well together.
What we’re doing is bringing the event industry under one roof in a modular platform.”

Events.com is an AI-driven, cloud-based event management SaaS platform that addresses the “two-sided marketplace,” Thrower said. “Which gives organizers a better way to manage, market and modify their events and gives participants a better way to discover, interact and transact with the events they love.”

Concord CEO Jeff Tuder said Events.com stood out from the “100 or more” opportunities the SPAC considered “for a number of reasons.”

“One of which is the market opportunity and size of the market they’re going after is so big. The second thing is, looking at that market, the incumbents aren’t necessarily giving an all-in-one solution and that’s something that Events prides itself on – using a technology-based solution to give their customers that in every event they produce,” he said.

Concord Acquisition Corp is affiliated with the Bob Diamond-founded global investment firm Atlas Merchant Capital, LLC. Diamond, who serves as Concord’s chairman and is a former chief executive of Barclays, described Events.com as “a perfect fit” for Concord.

“We aim to partner with outstanding and proven management teams and operating companies that are pioneering new technologies and leading the way in their market sectors,” he said.

Bullish of Industry Growth

Event.com’s move to the NYSE follows a 2022 Share Subscription Facility from Gem Global Yield LLC SCS that secured a capital commitment of $100 million for the company.

Events.com will have the ability to access those funds following an equity exchange listing, subject to certain conditions and limitations, that the company will use to accelerate its growth strategy by acquisitions, partnerships and organic initiatives.

Events.com will be launching a new technology it calls “Discover” next year. For M&As, Thrower said the company is focused on creating revenue and scale and looks for potential acquisitions that are profitable and have good teams because the “event industry is a people business.”

Thrower said he is bullish on the events industry’s growth, which has accelerated in the years following the pandemic that put a nearly full stop to in-person gatherings.

“The market has grown significantly on its own, and that is outside of that blip on the radar that became a catapult for the event industry,” he said. “People love to do things with other people and that love became even more impassioned throughout the pandemic when we were all prevented from it.”

In addition to a revved-up return in event attendance, the industry is also benefiting from a transfer of wealth during that period “from a buying things generation to a doing things generation as part of the experience economy,” Thrower said, adding that pandemics have historically had this effect and Events.com is predicting a peak for the event industry between 2024 and 2027.

Wonderfront Festival

Another area of potential growth for Events.com is in producing its own events, which Thrower said is “likely … but that’s TBD.”

Events.com produces the successful Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival held in waterfront parks and Seaport Village along the San Diego downtown waterfront.

“San Diego is part of our DNA, and the Wonderfront Festival is a tremendous event, for not only the community but for the festival market at large,” Thrower said, adding that there is a reason why tech companies invest in owning events. “It’s a unique approach where you take an iconic event, which is a marketing asset, and you turn that marketing asset – which is normally a spend – into a revenue center and ultimately a profit center, and that’s part of our philosophy.”

Events.com co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Partridge added that the company’s interest in producing events like Wonderfront is also driven by a passion for “finding and unlocking solutions” for event makers, of which a large segment is focused on the festivals and concert markets.

“From that perspective, we choose to enjoy diving as deep into the experience of an event maker as possible,” Partridge said. “And there’s no more intimate way to do so than jumping in and helping operate an event, as our clients do, so we can improve and learn to offer even better solutions to our event makers.”

Events.com
FOUNDED: 2009
HEADQUARTERS: La Jolla
CEO: Mitch Thrower
BUSINESS: SaaS events management platform
STOCK: RSVP (NYSE), following closing of deal expected Q1 2025
VALUATION: $314 million
EMPLOYEES: More than 100
WEBSITE: events.com
NOTABLE: In addition to serving the industry with its platform, Events.com also puts on its own events, including the Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival held in downtown San Diego.