Whova

Whova is an event management and event app platform providing conference management software, event mobile apps, virtual event hosting, and attendee networking features for professional conferences, trade shows, and corporate events. Founded in 2013 by Yuanyuan Zhou and Minglan Shi in San Diego, California, Whova has raised approximately $5 million (bootstrapped with small outside investment) and serves over 50,000 events annually ranging from small professional conferences to large trade shows, earning consistent recognition as a top event app platform.\n\nWhova's event app provides conference attendees with a complete event experience: interactive agenda with session filtering and personal schedule building, speaker profiles and session materials, networking (connecting attendees with shared interests via the AI-powered matchmaking), exhibitor booths with lead scanning, community boards for discussion, and live Q&A and polling during sessions. The event management backend enables organizers to manage speaker submissions, agenda building, badge printing, and event analytics from a single platform.\n\nIn 2025, Whova competes in the event technology market against Cvent (enterprise events), Eventbrite (ticketing and registration), RainFocus, Swapcard, and Guidebook for event app and conference management platform share. The event industry has returned strongly post-COVID with in-person conferences back to pre-pandemic levels. Whova's value proposition — a comprehensive event app at more accessible pricing than enterprise platforms like Cvent — makes it competitive for mid-sized conferences (500-10,000 attendees) where full Cvent implementation is too expensive. The 2025 strategy focuses on growing its hybrid event capabilities, expanding internationally, and adding AI-powered session recommendations and attendee matching features.