Companies Attract Venture Funding
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 2/27/2006
Venture capital funds appear to be taking an increased interest in tradeshow-related companies.
NTAG Interactive, a provider of interactive name badges, will receive an additional $6 million in funding from existing investors Sevin Rosen Funds and Pilot House Ventures, as well as angel investor Rick Burnes. That brings its funding total to $12 million since the company was established in 2002.
And OnVantage, which connects meeting planners with suppliers, has another $18 million in its company coffers, thanks to second-round venture funding led by Norwest Venture Partners and Texas Pacific Group Ventures.
Existing OnVantage investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, iD Ventures and MHM & Co. also participated in the round.
Boston-based nTAG, led by CEO David Goretski, plans to use the additional funding to expand sales and marketing efforts, grow its distribution, push new product development and support existing customers.
Aimed at enhancing attendee and exhibitor interaction, nTAG's wearable computers have been deployed at a number of events, including Digital ID World, the PTC Worldwide User Conference and Lucent's Strategic Supplier Event.
The nTAG looks like a traditional conference badge, but allows data to be exchanged by way of infrared sensors. When attendees register for an event, show management can gather information on their interests, buying authority or budgets, and download it into the nTAG.
Exhibitors can enter information, so that it's automatically transferred to an attendee's tag as the wearer approaches the booth. Show management can also transmit information such as schedule and conference room changes to attendees' and exhibitors' nTAGs.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based OnVantage, headed by CEO John Chang, was created by the September 2004 merger of meeting firms seeUthere Technologies and PlanSoft.
Bruce Harris, president of Conferon Global Services, and meeting planner Edward Tromczynski established the Cleveland-based PlanSoft in 1991. With financial backing from the American Society of Assn. Executives, Meeting Professionals Intl., GES Exposition Services and a variety of hotel chains, the company eventually attracted venture capital as well.
OnVantage now operates a virtual marketplace that connects 70,000 hotels and meeting suppliers with buyers who plan corporate meetings and events.
"We believe the company is serving an unfulfilled need in the meetings, events and group travel industry," stated NVP's Jim Lussier, who has joined the OnVantage board.
According to the company, in the last year, the marketplace has generated more than $552 million in revenue, representing more than 3 million room nights. OnVantage said its marketplace gives suppliers better access to meeting and event planners, while giving the planners more control over expenditures.
