Eved — a Chicago-based corporate event commerce company whose clients include Eli Lilly and Dell — just got an excuse to throw a party of its own. The company announced today it raised $14.3 million in new funding to boost its sales and double its Chicago workforce. The funding round, comprised exclusively of Chicago-based investors, was led by Huizenga Capital Management, and joined by MK Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and Merrick Ventures.
Each year, more than $770 billion dollars is spent on events. Historically, the event supply chain hasn’t had tools and methods to collaborate and effectively manage this category. By reducing the back-end financial and procurement workload, event planners can focus on being experience builders and improve the quality and impact of their events.
Eved offers a collaborative procurement platform for events and a marketplace with more than $300 million in event commerce running through it. Founded in 2010 by Talia Mashiach, the Eved platform automates the buying and selling for events including accounts payable and payment processing. Eved bridges the gap between procurement, event planners, finance and suppliers to improve event quality, drive 70% efficiencies, 20% cost savings and a 50% improvement in compliance.