French company Naboo raises €20M to simplify corporate events planning through AI: Here’s how
On Wednesday, Paris-based Naboo, a company that specialises in simplifying corporate events planning, announced that it has raised €20M in a Series A funding round led by Notion Capital.
Notion Capital is a European B2B SaaS and Cloud VC with $1B in assets under management and with more than 100 investments to date. The VC’s portfolio includes GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, Unbabel, and YuLife.
Itxaso del Palacio, General Partner at Notion Capital says, “The event organisation space is ripe for disruption. Despite corporations increasing their event budgets, the sector remains anchored in outdated concierge models and software that hasn’t evolved in decades. Naboo is redefining this landscape by introducing automation that streamlines event planning while elevating the experience for organisers and attendees. By prioritising financial transparency and compliance, Naboo is not just making event management easier—it’s setting a new standard for the industry.”
Fund utilisation
The company will use the funds from this third round of financing to meet demand in the UK market throughout 2025, having started operations there in late 2024.
The French company also plans to expand into Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, aiming to replace different domestic booking systems with a unified European approach.
Additionally, the company is planning for more M&As may follow to fuel its growth, after the recent acquisition of Bizmeeting.
The company aims to exceed €100M in booking volumes by 2025. This target is based on a full year in the UK and ongoing openings in other countries, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Naboo: Simplifying B2B events booking
Naboo was founded in 2022 by two tech aficionados for whom this is the fourth startup and two ex-Oliver Wyman FS consultants — Antoine Servant, Lucien Bredin, Maxime Eduardo, and Jean-Louis
Led by Maxime Eduardo, Naboo has developed a software solution to simplify the booking and organisation of B2B events worldwide.
Since its inception in 2022, Naboo has facilitated over €60M in event bookings, primarily focusing on Europe, supported by a team of more than 100 dedicated professionals.
The platform uses AI to improve personal service. Naboo aims to automate simple tasks so that employees can focus almost entirely on providing excellent service to customers and partners.
One-third of the company’s team consists of software developers, who built a comprehensive software suite.
The platform includes a cutting-edge event booking tool, an intuitive app for seamless event management, and a robust solution to centralise, track, and optimize event spending for Procurement and Finance Directors.
Naboo will enhance its software to offer a fully centralised suite for CFOs and procurement directors to steer their Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) spend, delivering unprecedented control and efficiency in this category.
The platform provides a comprehensive view of MICE activities, along with procurement policies and approval workflows, including automated invoicing and payments. This enables better expense management.
Additionally, forecasting and reporting tools will streamline compliance requirements, including carbon emission reports aligned with the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Naboo raised its first funding in April 2022 to develop its platform. In November 2023, it raised more funds to further improve the platform and reached annual volumes of nearly €15M.
In 2024, gross booking volumes almost quadrupled to €60M. After announcing €7.5M in February 2024, the next funding round took place in December, just 11 months later, showing strong potential for growth in 2025.
Maxime adds, “Carbon reduction is key to what we do. We cater to a huge demand for countryside retreats near major corporate hubs- therefore reducing international travel. Star Wars’ Naboo represents the only planet in the future we want to live in. We are about experience and travel and our clients want to protect and enjoy the natural beauty of Earth. Additionally, our AI-powered back-end enhances the level of personal service and human experience we can provide.”
January 29, 2025 at 07:32AM