MeraEvents gets $1 million funding from Omics Group

Hyderabad-based startup company MeraEvents has received $1 million (around Rs 6-crore) from city-based Omics International in return for a minority stake in the company.

The funding would help MeraEvents in kickstarting its marketing and technology capabilities for positioning itself as a leading provider of event management technology services in the country.      

“The funding from the Omics Group would aid in scaling our technology solutions required for capturing the large but untapped event management services market in India,” Chennapa Naidu Darapaneni, founder and CEO of MeraEvents, told mediapersons here today.

Earlier, it had raised $200,000 from basic Angel round funding from the promoters' friends and families based in the US.

MeraEvents.com had provided its services to over 10,000 events in the country last year and targets to cover 25,000 events in the current fiscal year.

While its transaction revenues stood at Rs 6.4 crore in 2013-14, it is eyeing at least Rs 25 crore this year supported by the latest round of funding.

Terming the investment by Omics as strategic, he said the partnership would help MeraEvents provide technology for expanding the former’s business. The partnership allows it to service Omics’ over 300 annual science and medical conferences, including 100 overseas. Omics is a publisher of open access journals and science conferences across the world.

Darapaneni said they were also in active discussions with interested venture capitalist for a further $4 million funding, which it might require in the next 6-9 months.

Under its unique portal for picking event venues, the company plans to bring around 50,000 venues in the country on its Venue.MeraEvents.com. Four-years down the line, it plans to do Rs 400 crore in transaction value, which translates into revenues of Rs 200 crore.

Launched in 2009, MeraEvents expects to achieve business operations breakeven by 2017-18.