'The Big Pitch' Winner ECAL Secures $2M Funding

ECAL, the global ‘precision marketing’ platform for events, has raised $2 million in funding from Larry Kestelman’s Oxygen Ventures.  ECAL was judged a joint winner of the inaugural ‘Big Pitch’ event for start-ups organised by Oxygen Ventures on 17^th June in Melbourne.

ECAL delivers relevant and on-time marketing information into a consumer’s calendar, driving increased awareness, engagement and sales. Its being increasingly adopted by savvy marketers in search of more accurate and targeted communications with consumers.  The calendar remains one of the last of the daily consumer interfaces untapped by brands seeking engagement with consumers.

ECAL Highlights

• ECAL was launched in 2012 by founder Patrick Barrett – built on Australian-developed proprietary technology

• ECAL now serves more than 6 million ‘calendar activities’ each day – growing month on month

• With over 100 major clients across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, ECAL’s initial focus was major sports (with representation in major sporting competitions including NFL, NBA, MLS, LPGA, EPL, AFL, NRL, Big Bash League and more)

• Consumer engagement for a calendar interaction far exceeds traditional e-marketing channels - with ‘open rates’ 5-20x greater than email, and ‘click-through’ rates 3-30x greater than online display advertising, and up to 10x greater than ‘rich’ media advertising.

• $2m investment will drive new product development outside of major sports, the launch of a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) version of the platform and expand the sales team in North America.

Big name clients include NFL teams (New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins), NBA teams (Boston Celtics), Major League Soccer, LPGA, NCAA and College Sports in the US; English Premier League teams, Premier Rugby teams, European PGA Golf in Europe; and locally, ECAL is used across the AFL, NRL, Cricket, Soccer, Super Rugby, NBL, NZ Rugby Union and more.

Founder and CEO, Patrick Barrett says, “This investment will significantly accelerate our growth by enabling ECAL to go the next level.  The capital will enable us to expand our geographic footprint, to service new markets, and to develop our product further.  By having someone with Larry’s experience involved in the next phase of growth, we will be the beneficiary of far more than the $2m on investment Oxygen brings to the business.”

Investor and former Dodo Internet founder, Larry Kestelman of Oxygen Ventures, says “ECAL is such a terrific idea, brilliant in its simplicity, and we see great potential for its use beyond sport and entertainment. At Oxygen, we back great teams, big ideas and bold plans, and we are very much looking forward to our partnership in ECAL.”

Joining Mr. Barrett on the E-DIARY Pty Ltd Board is former iSelect CEO Matt McCann, Kestelman and Oxygen Investment Director, Ilya Frolov. The company has also recruited an impressive Advisory including US based Chris Bernard (Microsoft) and David Riemer (ex-Yahoo), plus current CTO at MYOB, Simon Raik-Allen.