Naboo, the Paris-based event-tech startup, has raised €20 million in a Collection A funding spherical led by Notion Capital, reportedly marking the best funding determine in its sector up to now.
This newest funding underscores the surging demand for Naboo’s occasion concierge service, which already handles occasions for 10% of the French inventory market (CAC) 40-listed corporations.
Maxime Eduardo, Co-founder and CEO of Naboo, famous: “What we’d predicted got here true. There’s been an explosion of team-building actions and in-person occasions because of the rise of distant work. It’s all about fostering social interplay, creating a sense of belonging, which engenders worker loyalty and dedication.”
Based in 2022 in France by Maxime Eduardo and Antoine Servant, two serial tech entrepreneurs and two former Oliver Wyman FS consultants, Naboo has quickly expanded its presence within the company occasions house. Its AI-powered backend permits extra environment friendly service supply whereas enhancing the bespoke expertise that appears to set it aside.
Naboo’s platform provides an event-planning expertise, protecting all the pieces from venue reserving, catering, and transportation to team-building actions. Based on Naboo, not like outdated concierge fashions, they combine AI-driven automation with high-touch service to take away administrative burdens, permitting its workforce to deal with delivering a tailor-made, high-end expertise.
The startup has secured ten contracts with EU-listed corporations valued between €1–10 million per yr, together with three contracts exceeding €10 million yearly. They’ve additionally labored with main firms similar to Google, Société Générale, Veolia, Arkema, Thales, and scale-ups like Qonto.
Itxaso del Palacio, Normal Accomplice at Notion Capital, stated: “The occasion organisation house is ripe for disruption. Regardless of firms rising their occasion budgets, the sector stays anchored in outdated concierge fashions and software program that hasn’t developed in a long time. Naboo is redefining this panorama by introducing automation that streamlines occasion planning whereas elevating the expertise for organisers and attendees alike. By prioritising monetary transparency and compliance, Naboo is not only making occasion administration simpler—it’s setting a brand new normal for the business.”
Following its second funding spherical in 2023, the corporate invested in AI and knowledge processes, refining its concierge service to optimise price effectivity, transparency, and sustainability.
This newest funding spherical will gas Naboo’s enlargement into the UK market all through 2025, following its This fall 2024 entry. The corporate can also be planning additional development in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, consolidating its place as a pan-European company occasion resolution.
Fred Viet, Chief Gross sales Officer of Aircall, shared his expertise utilizing the platform: “At Aircall, we wanted a world resolution to assist us in organising our occasions in a easy, easy and native means. Being in New York Metropolis myself, it is vitally snug for me to make use of Naboo to organise my occasions wherever in Europe.”
Naboo can also be growing a centralised software program suite to assist CFOs and procurement administrators oversee their Conferences, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) budgets. The platform integrates spend monitoring, coverage compliance, invoicing, and automatic fee processing, delivering an in depth degree of management over company occasion expenditures.
Moreover, Naboo’s carbon monitoring instruments will assist corporations in assembly the necessities of the Company Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a rising precedence for European firms.
Laure Pechalmbec, Buying Class Supervisor, Advertising and Communication, Europe, at Arkema, stated: “As a procurement director, I recognise that MICE represents a uniquely difficult class in procurement. The spending is usually dispersed throughout numerous departments inside an organisation, categorised inconsistently as overhead, journey, or occasion bills. This fragmentation makes reaching a consolidated and centralised view of MICE expenditure exceptionally troublesome. […] Given its rising significance, the necessity to management and optimise this spend has by no means been extra vital. With superior instruments like Naboo, we acquire the visibility and management required to steer this class successfully. The impression is profound- enabling us to unlock financial savings of tens of millions of euros yearly on a world scale.”
Sustainability additionally performs a key function in Naboo’s imaginative and prescient. The corporate’s title is impressed by the plush planet of Naboo from Star Wars, reflecting its dedication to decreasing carbon emissions by means of localised occasion choices that minimise worldwide journey.
Maxime added: “Carbon discount is vital to what we do. We cater to an enormous demand for countryside retreats close to main company hubs- due to this fact decreasing worldwide journey. Star Wars’ Naboo represents the one planet sooner or later we wish to stay in. We’re about expertise and journey and our shoppers wish to defend and benefit from the pure fantastic thing about Earth. Moreover, our AI-powered back-end enhances the extent of private service and human expertise we’re in a position to present.”
The corporate raised its first spherical in April 2022 to construct the platform, adopted by a November 2023 spherical, bringing its annualised gross reserving quantity near €15 million.
In 2024, Naboo’s reserving volumes almost quadrupled to €60 million, with its €7.5 million increase in February 2024 adopted by this €20 million spherical simply 11 months later. The startup goals to exceed €100 million in reserving volumes by 2025, supported by its full-year UK presence and additional European enlargement.
The current acquisition of Bizmeeting signifies Naboo’s urge for food for M&A-driven development, with additional acquisitions doubtlessly accelerating its trajectory. As company occasion spending rises, Naboo is well-positioned to problem fragmented home reserving engines with a single, tech-enabled resolution for enterprises throughout Europe.
