Eventizer: A platform to find every vendor you need in hosting events

In November 2021, when Monwata Zerin was an HSC student at Viquarunnisa Noon College, she had to arrange a farewell for her batch. 

"We wanted to throw a grand event but time was a big limitation here as the authority handed us the farewell notice only 10 days before the programme," said Monwata. 

While endlessly scrolling through social media, an event management platform named 'Eventizer' caught her eye.

Eventizer is Bangladesh's first decentralised marketplace for event-related logistics and services. 

This platform allows users to browse and find event vendors offering the best prices for events from all over the country. 

"Since we were just college kids, we had no idea about the market price of different services. Eventizer helped us get the best deals," Monwata shared with us.

She, on behalf of her institution, took services like catering, photography and lighting from Eventizer. They also got banners, sound system, walkie-talkies etc from the company. 

Eventizer also provided them with a dedicated supervisor and a few volunteers at the spot to execute everything hassle-free.

Founded in 2021, Eventizer is the brainchild of Labib Muhannad, who is currently pursuing his BBA from Daffodil University.

In 2017, when Labib was a 12th grader at Rajuk Uttara Model College, he had to organise an event for Rajuk Photography Club, where he faced several difficulties handling the logistics.

"Last two days before the event was a nightmare. Working hands-on with different services from different vendors felt so overwhelming.  I remember I had to go to Abdullahpur for a simple banner print because that was the only printing place I knew," reminisced Labib.

That was the time when Labib first realised the gap in the market in this sector. He dreamt of building a platform where he could bring different vendors together.

Eventizer is a promising medium for microentrepreneurs. It is the right place for those who run a decent business and are not bothered with brand value or business promotion.

"For instance, a printing shop at Nilkhet might do good quality prints and be capable of taking orders in bulk. But, it has no brand value and does not take online orders. Our aim is to find these vendors and help them push their boundaries," said Labib.

The business model of this startup is quite simple. It is similar to any multivendor e-commerce website (e.g Daraz, Amazon) from where you can buy a product from a particular vendor who offers you the best price. 

The only difference is, Eventizer sells services instead of products. Its website catalogues different services in different categories and once a customer has taken a particular service through this website and paid for it, Eventizer takes 20% from that. The rest is transferred to the vendor's account.

Being a newborn startup, Eventizer is still in its pre-revenue stage and is spending more to capture the market. 

Eventizer started with founder Labib's personal funding and with the help of some of his juniors.

In 2018, Labib, accompanied by his friends, pitched his business plan at the GP pre-accelerator competition. Unfortunately, his team could not make it to the top three and did not get any funding.

But the young entrepreneur never stopped believing in his startup. So he kept looking for other investors actively. Within a span of six months, he got two investors interested in his startup.  

Unwilling to disclose their names, he said, "One of them wanted to take over the startup and hire me on a salary basis, the other one wanted to restructure the business into the SME model. I did not settle for any of these proposals."

This February, Eventizer caught the attention of Mohammad Maaz, the managing director of Steeltech Industries Ltd and one of the leading angel investors in the country.

He invested Tk2,000,000 in exchange for 15% of the share in the business.

"The business has seen a massive boost since the investment. We can now spend a good amount on promotional activities, which gave us a decent customers' response. I am hoping we will be able to make a profit from next year," he added.

As of now, Eventizer has a team of 14 people. The company is operating from a small office space located at the capital's Bannai.

Eventizer has two distinct categories - services and logistical support. The service category includes event planning, photography, DJ service, makeup artist, mehndi artist, lighting etc. The logistical support helps clients get gift items, printings, banners etc.

The startup started with only 11 vendors (two makeup artists, three photographers and six logistic vendors). Now they have more than 150 vendors in different categories.

The targeted market is corporates and upper-middle-class families who host parties on a regular basis. Eventizer has received a good response from college and university students too, but it has not been able to capture the wedding market yet.

On this, Labib said, "I think weddings are very sentimental events. People love to plan everything, including all the small details, by themselves. Moreover, the fact that we have not enlisted any high-end brands in our platform till now might be another reason why we could not tap into the wedding market yet." 

However, he has plans to collaborate with big brands as his company expands.