DoubleDutch Acquires Eventgrid; Names Bryan Parker Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Coburn Chief Strategy Officer

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 28, 2017) - DoubleDutch, the leading Live Engagement Marketing platform, today announced the acquisition of event registration provider Eventgrid and the promotion of COO Bryan Parker to CEO. Current CEO and co-founder Lawrence Coburn, who has led DoubleDutch since its inception, will serve as Chief Strategy Officer, focusing on product strategy and the launch of the new DoubleDutch + Eventgrid platform to the market.

Eventgrid provides an innovative attendee registration system used by customers including Sony and Northwestern Mutual. The acquisition expands DoubleDutch's current offering into a full-fledged event marketing and attendee management system. DoubleDutch customers can now promote their event as well as register and engage attendees, all while capturing actionable behavioral signals before, during, and after their events.

"Acquiring Eventgrid propels DoubleDutch into a new class of event technology as we bring together a modern mobile event app and a dynamic event registration and promotion system," says Bryan Parker, newly named CEO of DoubleDutch. "The Eventgrid team is a natural complement to DoubleDutch, sharing a deep commitment to accessible and elegant design. I look forward to delivering a system that combines the ease of consumer grade software with the scalability, security, and stability of the enterprise to event professionals."

Parker joined DoubleDutch earlier this year as COO, bringing deep experience and a passion for driving operational excellence and revenue generation. Previously, Parker headed the Internal Growth and Real Estate operations at DaVita as Vice President & General Manager, and before that he led Affinity Media as COO & SVP of Corporate Development.

"Bryan brings a remarkable skill set as a world class operator and business grower to DoubleDutch, and was instrumental in executing the acquisition of Eventgrid," said Coburn. "I'm excited to partner with him to make a new class of event technology even stronger for our customers, offering the best in attendee experience, delivering real ROI for marketers, and helping engage attendees at the moment of registration."

DoubleDutch has established itself as the leading live engagement marketing system -- having powered more than 5,000 events with over two million users. With the acquisition of Eventgrid, DoubleDutch is becoming a full end-to-end event marketing system where customers can register attendees, create targeted email campaigns, communicate with attendees, collect data, and report on ROI all within one integrated solution.

"We believe that it is still early innings for the event technology sector, and there is a large opportunity for new entrants that can bring product innovations to market," said Ted Oberwager, Director at KKR and Board Member at DoubleDutch. "Our research suggests there is growing demand for a modern, consumer-grade event marketing system that combines event registration and mobile into a single, effective offering. The acquisition of Eventgrid will allow DoubleDutch to accelerate its product vision and set the stage for continued innovation."

"We've integrated with each of the primary mobile event application providers, and have long believed that DoubleDutch is the strongest product in the market," said Niraj Shah, founder of Eventgrid. "We are excited to team up with a market leader, and expect the modernity and elegance of the combined systems to resonate strongly with the market."

For more information, please read DoubleDutch's blog post on the Eventgrid acquisition.

About Eventgrid
Eventgrid is an easy way to set up online registration and ticketing for conferences, seminars, concerts, tours and festivals. Its suite of tools provides event managers and marketers the ability to manage all of the elements of their events from a single platform -- including everything from the initial announcements and marketing campaigns, to registration, ticketing and CRM; as well as follow-up messaging and analytics.

About DoubleDutch
DoubleDutch's mission is to unlock the business value of human connections by bringing the power of digital to live experiences. The DoubleDutch Live Engagement Platform powers events, conferences, and trade shows for more than 1,700 customers including Akamai, LinkedIn, BlackRock, Bosch, Novartis and UBM. The company has been named one of Deloitte's 500 fastest growing companies in North America, one of AlwaysOn OnMedia's 100 Top Private Companies, and one of Forbes' 10 Hot Companies to Work for in San Francisco. DoubleDutch is based in San Francisco with additional U.S. offices in Phoenix and Portland and a global presence in Amsterdam and London.