Airmeet helps in hosting larger events, an alternative to Zoom 

Amid Coronavirus, number of people have been working from home and socializing on line, through online video conferencing such as platforms such as Zoom and Houseparty, but for organisers to host virtual events with a much larger participation has become a challenge.

Airmeet, founded less than a year ago by Lalit Mangal, Manoj Singh and Vinay Jaasti, Airmeet helps organize meet ups, company events and workshops. It claims that it can now accommodate upto a million concurrent attendees.

During the lockdown in India, Airmeet has seen its event numbers double every week over the past month with communities organizing over 1,000 member events at least thrice a week.   

“It’s a virtual venue where you can move around - jump from one table to another,” said Mangal, Chief Executive of Airmeet. “The product is built specifically for events with a backstage, stage and a social lounge.”

As employees began working from home, video conferencing app Zoom witnessed a stupendous rise but security concerns with Zoom have pushed the Indian government to issue an advisory calling it unsafe.

Airmeet’s alpha product was launched in November following which they started hosting some public events on the platform. This led to the company getting noticed by its early investors.

In March, as the country was grappling with the pandemic, the founders closed a follow-on seed round of $3 million after having a discussion with investors over Airmeet.

This round was led by Accel Partners along with participation from Venture Highway, Global Founders and a few others. 

Airmeet is now focused on building the product for multiple-format events including job fairs. “Most people consider networking as an important part of attending an event and that’s a big focus for us,” said Mangal.