Martha smiles on event manager Pingg, leads $2.8M round

October 29, 2008 | Camille Ricketts | Comments | |

Martha Stewart, cultural icon of event planning that she is, has given Pingg — maker of software for invitation and event management — her seal of approval, and contributed to a $2.8 million first round of funding via her media network Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO).

The transaction allows Pingg to run content from Martha’s other digital properties on its website and gives MSLO the right to provide Pingg’s unique event tools on MarthaStewart.com. In addition, all advertising affiliated with Pingg will be brokered by the larger media company. Previously, it brought in revenue through some premium paid services and online ads.

It offers customizable invitations that can also be emailed, printed or distributed through social networks, as well as event homepages, reminders, save-the-dates and thank you notes. The exchange with MSLO is a pretty good deal for the New York-based startup, considering it launched in February and faces pretty stiff competition in its field.

About 2.5 million invitations have been sent through the service since its inception. Compare that to its rival eVite, which does all of the above, has 18 million registered users, and claims to send 16 million invitations each month. Smaller players like Socializr have tried to chip away at its dominance to no avail. But Pingg does have an edge in some areas. Several bloggers have declared it a “sexier” site than others, appearing slicker and integrating more Web 2.0 concepts. For example, its Surround-Send option delivers a single invite to guests over email, mobile and Facebook at once. I’m guessing Martha wouldn’t settle for less.

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About the Author, Camille Ricketts

Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.

  • The name of the website is great and I also think the appeal of it really grasps the attention of a visitor. Not taking anything away from Evite but its nice to see some friendly competition.
  • truthout
    I think Martha needs to invest wisely as she is going out of style.
  • I like anyvite.com better, its more flexible
  • level of customization is quite poor compared to sites like www.jujups.com which allows much greater creative freedom, though there is some advantage in creating super elegant simple stuff - as a sign of status and style. But being cool is about being dynamic and unorthodox in your choice ? its the cool people who drive the net.
  • edhardy622
    British law student sues Abercrombie-Fitch for disability discrimination.
    http://www.abercrombieonsale.co.uk