Evite, Eventbrite, Facebook Events, Paperless Post, and now, Partiful?
Partiful, which bills itself as the "Facebook Events for hot people" and has been called an "Eventbrite but for Gen Z," has exploded in popularity in recent months as the rare consumer app that top VCs want to invite to their funding party.
Partiful has recently closed a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to two people with knowledge of the financing who were not authorized to speak publicly. The deal totals as much as $20 million and values the startup at more than $100 million, said one source.
The deal comes as a rare bright spot in what has been a fallow period for funding, especially for battered consumer companies. According to two sources, several top-tier firms, including Benchmark and New Enterprise Associates, met with the company before Andreessen Horowitz put down a term sheet.
Joy Tao and Shreya Murthy, the cofounders of Partiful, did not respond to a request for comment. Andreessen Horowitz also did not respond to a request for comment.
Tao and Murthy, both alums of Palantir, cofounded Partiful in New York in 2020. This year, the app suddenly became more popular, especially in tech circles and among the under 30 crowd. It not only has a sleek interface where hosts can quickly customize their event pages, but allows guests to receive text blast updates and reminders from organizers.
—Jason Shuman (@JasonrShuman) October 24, 2022
The app was ubiquitous at LA Tech Week in August, an event that was organized by Andreessen, with young techies constantly checking their texts to see if they made it off the waitlist to get into dozens of parties. Then, in September, the New York Times wrote a glowing piece rhetorically asking: "Is This the Least Cringe Option to Get People to Your Party?"
Murthy told the Times in September that the number of event pages created on Partiful has multiplied ten times since the beginning of the year and its total number of users is in the "hundreds of thousands."
The company previously raised $7.4 million in two rounds of seed funding from undisclosed investors, Murthy added at the time.
Partiful employs just 11 people, according to Pitchbook.
Venture investors, eager to find the next buzzy consumer app, have marveled at Partiful's growth.
"Partiful has grown quickly with event hosts who are fed up with Facebook's dilapidated Events product and want an SMS-based product that's better suited for Gen Z than email or notification-based products," said Josh Constine, a venture partner at SignalFire. The firm invests in the consumer sector, but has no ties to Partiful.
"If Partiful builds out its contact list feature," Constine said, "it could make it much easier to see tons of friends at IRL events while ad-based social networks try to keep us glued to our screens."
Correction: November 7, 2022 — The story has been updated to reflect that Benchmark met with Partiful.
