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A company that wants to be the Netflix of B2B events just raised $28 million — here’s its pitch deck

Goldcast creates Netflix-style virtual and hybrid events for B2B marketers.
The company works with clients like Microsoft’s GitHub, Hootsuite, and Intuit.
It just raised $28 million in Series A funding from private-equity firm Westbridge Capital.

Goldcast, which creates Netflix-style virtual and hybrid events for B2B marketers, closed on a $28 million Series A funding round led by private-equity firm Westbridge Capital, with participation from venture capital firm Unusual Ventures.

Goldcast has now raised a total of $40 million after receiving $10 million in seed funding from Unusual Ventures in February.

CEO Palash Soni, a former product manager for mobile marketing platform InMobi, cofounded Goldcast in 2020 with Chief Operating Officer Kishore Kothandaraman, a former finance exec for healthcare company DaVita Kidney Care and Boston Consulting Group associate; and Chief Technology Officer Aashish Srinivas, a former engineer for Walmart’s now defunct Jet.com.

Goldcast’s clients include Microsoft-owned IT company GitHub, Hootsuite, and Intuit. It employs 85 people, evenly split between the US and India.

Soni said Goldcast’s point of difference is that it gives clients learnings from event attendees that they can then use to advertise to them.

“Let’s say you have an event of 2,000 attendees,” Soni said. “We can see if someone showed interest in machine learning sessions and answered a poll saying machine learning is a priority for them.”

Goldcast is trying to reimagine the stuffy conference arena by taking inspiration from Netflix. It automatically directs attendees to the next conference session like Netflix does with show episodes, for example. “People binge-watch content on Netflix because of how engaging and user-friendly it is,” Kothandaraman said.

Goldcast plans to use the new funding to invest in technology to further improve the experience.

“As digital events increasingly become the norm, there is a strong market opportunity here and Goldcast is leading the pack,” said Westbridge cofounder and managing director Sumir Chadha, who joined Goldcast’s board.

Kothandaraman said fundraising in the current uncertain economy wasn’t easy.

“We had such great traction, both revenue growth and great retention metrics, but still investors were very wary and there was a definitely a lot more diligence on the strength of the core business,” he said.

Despite the return of in-person events, economic uncertainty has caused businesses to host smaller virtual and hybrid events that are cheaper than big in-person conferences, Soni said.

“People are craving in-person experiences but larger conferences are not getting the attendees anymore,” Kothandaraman said. “B2B companies use digital events to get more narrow down the funnel, to host regional workshops with target audiences.”

Scroll down to read the pitch deck Goldcast used to woo investors.

Goldcast has raised $40 million in all and has clients like sales engagement platform Salesloft and people management platform Lattice.

Goldcast’s cofounders believe their company stands out in B2B marketing because of its ability to drive revenue for clients in the event space.

Goldcast claims to be one of the first B2B marketing platforms to focus on events.

Goldcast collects info on attendees through polls and tracking the sessions they attend.

Zendesk Senior Director Sarah Reed, an advisory board member for Goldcast, touts the success of virtual and hybrid marketing events in driving marketing goals.

Goldcast provides a single system to execute and measure marketing events.

The company runs events plus provides various pre- and post-event marketing services, including creating marketing campaigns to target attendees after the conference.

Taking inspiration from Netflix, Goldcast claims to make the virtual experience for corporate events more appealing and user-friendly.

The company claims to be one of the only platforms to achieve results for clients through its events.

Goldcast says clients have access to a centralized hub with event planning details and insights on attendees.

The company says sales teams can see what sessions individuals attended at its events and use that information to market to them later.

Goldcast says its polls also give insights into attendees that can be used for marketing purposes.

The company boasts of easy-to-use workflows that help track attendees.

One client, Axonius director of global marketing programs Anna Suslova, praised Goldcast for giving her event data like how engaged attendees were and how many resources they downloaded.

Goldcast shared client testimonies saying events drew in larger attendances than other conferences, grew revenue, and reduced post-event follow-up time.

Goldcast says it’s on a path to pioneer and dominate the B2B event marketing space.

Goldcast touted its high customer ratings based on 54 reviews.

Its leadership includes Mike Goldenberg, head of sales; Kelly Cheng, head of growth; Stephanie Roulic, head of customer success; and Piyush Rai, VP of engineering.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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A company that wants to be the Netflix of B2B events just raised $28 million — here's its pitch deck