Today brings word of further consolidation in the event-management technology sector. Enterprise software provider Etouches has acquired Zentila, a hotel-sourcing platform based in Orlando, Fla.
The terms of the transaction between the private companies were not disclosed.
Announcement of the deal comes only a couple of weeks after Norwalk, Conn.-based etouches revealed that it had closed a $20 million round of growth funding.
Etouches is next largest in the event-management software market by size after Cvent and Lanyon.
One month ago, Cvent was acquired for $1.65 billion by affiliates of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm.
Vista also own Lanyon, which claims to generate billions in request for proposal value a year. Two years ago Lanyon acquired Passkey, a provider of group reservation technology that claims to serve more than 90% of the North American Convention and Visitor Bureau market, among other hospitality and non-travel related players.
Eventbrite, via some of its overlapping tools, is arguably competitive and the next-largest in size. That said, the market is in flux and not all product sets are comparable. Other players that have some software that serves the MICE space include Bizzabo, Certain, Dean Evans & Associates, The Pulse Network, Meetingsbooker, Social Tables, and Ungerboeck Software.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that technology-focused private equity group Accel-KKR announced that it had acquired a stake in Cendyn, a provider of B2B technology for hotel marketing and event management -- though its business only partially overlaps with what Cvent, Lanyon, Etouches, and Eventbrite are interested in.
Some analysts predict that the event management software market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% between now and 2020.
Given event-management's importance, though not centrality, in sustaining profits for hotels, there has been speculation that eventually one of the major global travel technology companies may invest in this sector -- to provide more fully-featured tools for hotel customers already using other enterprise software.
Etouches has 1,200 customers worldwide and 165 employees, including Zentila. It claims year-over-year revenue growth exceeding 50%. Last year, it acquired TapCrowd, a maker of mobile apps for corporate and association events, and Inevention, a venue-sourcing tool for event planners.
Earlier: Event planners who use tech during site visits cover more ground, says survey