Exclusive: Airmeet set to raise fresh funds at $150 Mn valuation

Virtual event organisation startup and Zoom’s biggest rival in India Airmeet is in late-stage discussions to scoop up a new round from new and existing backers, according to two people aware of the details of the potential transaction.

The Accel-backed startup had last raised $12 million in its Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India and Redpoint Ventures in September last year.

“Airmeet is raising around $25-30 million at over $150 million in valuation,” said one of the people on the condition of anonymity as talks are private. “Prosus and Sequoia are likely to co-lead this round,” the person added.

If this goes through, it will mark a three-fold jump in Airmeet’s valuation which was valued at around $50 million 14 months ago. The company had also raised $400K in a seed round and closed a follow-on seed round of $3 million from Accel and others in March last year.

According to sources, Accel will join the round on a pro-rata basis.

“We do not comment on market rumours or speculations,” said Prosus in a response to Entrackr. Queries sent to Airmeet, Sequoia and Accel did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post as and when they respond

Founded by Lalit Mangal, Manoj Singh and Vinay Jaasti, Airmeet came as an alternative to Zoom during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The startup helps organize meetups, events, workshops and is built specifically for events with a backstage, stage and a social lounge.

The pandemic had a severe impact on the majority of startups but it helped some companies grow. One such firm is Airmeet that has managed to scale at a fast clip in FY21. Its revenue took a leap in FY21 to Rs 40 crore as compared to Rs 1.9 crore in FY20, per the company’s annual financial statement filed with the RoC. 

It’s worth mentioning that Airmeet was only operational for a few months in FY20 and FY21 was its first full fiscal of operations. Unlike a majority of early-stage startups, Airmeet has been profitable since its first fiscal year. Its profit stood at Rs 2.75 crore in FY21 and Rs 17 lakh in FY20.