Cvent Inc., an events and hospitality management company based in Tysons, has announced two new industry executives set to join its board after it closes on its planned merger with a blank-check company to go public for the second time in the last decade.
The local company is working toward a Dec. 8 consummation of its marriage with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, named Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. II (NASDAQ: DGNS), formed by San Francisco investment firm Dragoneer, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings The deal values the combined company at $5.3 billion and is expected to raise $475 million from stock sales, per a recent prospectus filed last month with the SEC.
Once it's closed, Cvent plans to list on the Nasdaq on Dec. 9 under the ticker “CVT” — its former ticker symbol when it last traded publicly five years ago — and ring the exchange's opening bell the following day, a spokesperson said.
After the merger, Cvent’s board will add on Marcela Martin, currently chief financial officer at Squarespace Inc. (NYSE: SQSP), as well as Jim Frankola, former CFO of California-based Cloudera, as new independent members. Martin also sits on the boards of Avalara Inc. (NYSE: AVLR), a tax compliance software company, and Chegg Inc., (NYSE: CHGG), an education technology company.
“Over the last 21 years, we have successfully scaled Cvent from a two-person startup to the 4,000-plus-person global company we are today," CEO Reggie Aggarwal said in a statement announcing the new board members. "As we enter this new chapter, we look forward to working with the board to accelerate our growth and capture the larger market opportunity as the event industry continues its digital transformation.”
Per its recent prospectus, Cvent said the combined company's board will also consist of Aggarwal, as well as a slate selected by Vista Equity Partners, the private equity firm that's owned Cvent since 2016. Vista will continue to own a sizable chunk of the combined company's shares, upward of 78.8%, after the deal closes.
In addition to Martin and Frankola, the new board is expected to include these nominees:
- Sanju Bansal, a longtime Cvent board member and a co-founder of MicroStrategy
- David Breach, president and chief operating officer of Vista Equity Partners, per the firm's website
- Betty Hung, managing director of Vista Equity Partners and a current Cvent board member, per the firm's site
- Maneet Saroya, senior managing director and co-head of Flagship Fund at Vista Equity Partners, as well as a current Cvent board member, per the firm's site
- Sam Payton, vice president of Vista Equity Partners, according to his LinkedIn page
- Nicolas Stahl: vice president of Vista Equity Partners, according to his LinkedIn page
Cvent has experienced a series of rapid transformations over the years. It went public for the first time in August 2013 after a rocky journey that saw the company near bankruptcy. Instead, the company ended up raising $135 million in its initial public offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Then in 2016, it went private after it sold to Vista for $1.65 billion.
During the pandemic, as in-person events shut down, the events company pivoted hard and fast to a virtual events business. It laid off or furloughed about 10% of its workforce in the first year of the pandemic but, by 2021, was hiring once again.
Last month, Cvent said its revenue in the third quarter of 2021 totaled $134.1 million, up 13.1% higher than the same quarter last year.
