Six Months, 1,000 Events, 200,000 Attendees: Whova Revolutionizes Event Networking
Whova offers a mobile app to build a community within an event by connecting organizers, attendees, and sponsors together.July 17, 2015, San Diego, California – In its first six months on the market, the Whova app supported over 1,000 events and more than 200,000 attendees. The mobile event-app solution provider announced those milestones for the young company, adding that Whova-supported events took place in 42 countries.
“This is a significant milestone for Whova,” said Dr. YY Zhou, founder and CEO of Whova. “We are very pleased that our customers and users have recognized the value of our app and the rich data it pulls together to help conference attendees get more out of the networking experience before, during and after events.”
Institutional customers in the six-month period included TEDx, MIT Technology Review, Stanford University, Mitsubishi, AMA, etc.
The statistics underscore Whova’s disruptive role in the event networking industry. “This is the result of our unique SmartProfile technology and our commitment to attendee networking,” added Zhou, who is also a professor of Computer Science and Engineering in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “Many attendees like our app because of this. I am so glad that our technology is helping professional people, including even introverts like us, network more effectively at events.”
Since launching the apps for industry in late 2014, Whova has offered event organizers a vehicle to mobilize event information, boost attendee engagement and foster networking among attendees. With almost zero effort in setting up individual profiles, the Whova app through its intelligent SmartProfile software can obtain insights into other attendees (e.g., image, bio, social links), making it easier for them to network with the right people instead of bumping into random attendees at an event.
The technology is also embedded in its new business card scanning feature. “Just discovered Whova’s super awesome app to organize business cards,” said Julia Ullmann, an active Whova app user. “Goodbye overstuffed wallet!” The tool allows users to digitize any business card with a single snap using their smartphone, but by matching a name on the business card with a face, the app can access many more insights.
The cutting-edge technology and rapid growth helped Whova successfully raise nearly $6 million from venture capitalists in the Bay Area earlier this year. The investment will be used to grow the team to further improve the product and reach out to more event organizes and planners.
“Now we have the money and a great team,” said CEO Zhou. “It’s time for us to further scale up and push for bigger milestones, with more and more events signing on to provide their attendees with the innovative solution and networking experience that the Whova app delivers.”
About Whova
Whova is a San Diego-based technology startup that spun off from UC San Diego and offers a mobile app to build a community within an event by connecting organizers, attendees, and sponsors together. The company, founded in 2013 by Dr. YY Zhou, aims to revolutionize attendee networking and engagement, and to extend the event experience for attendees beyond the specific time and location. Whova’s vision is to become the must-have app for professional events to enable more effective networking at events, while giving event-goers a more intelligent and organized way to manage their event-based networking.
For more information on the company and its services, visit https://whova.com/ or contact press@whova.com.