Evite Scores a Growth Investment

Glendale-based Evite has received a strategic growth investment from Francisco Partners, the online invitation company announced at the beginning of November. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

While many first movers in the tech world keep to their roots in the Bay Area, Evite cemented itself as a pioneer in the digital invitation space when it launched in 1988 and soon established a presence Los Angeles. After raising $38 million in funding, the startup was acquired by Beverly Hills-based Ticketmaster in 2001, then by Liberty Interactive in 2010. 

Evite was bought out in 2020 for an undisclosed amount, turning the unprofitable arm of a larger media conglomerate into its own company just as the U.S. descended into a pandemic, isolating people from friends, family and coworkers. Nevertheless, the company raised another undisclosed round of funding in 2023 before it received its recent growth investment from Francisco Partners.

David Yeom, now the chief executive of Evite, and George Ruan had long histories in e-commerce before they spun Evite into its own company. Yeom worked at eBay, HauteLook and The Honest Co. Ruan was the cofounder of online coupon website Honey and, when PayPal acquired the company, a vice president at PayPal. Under the pair, Evite has reorganized its strategy to boost profitability by abandoning its reliance on advertisements and switching to e-commerce by using affiliate programs so guests can bring gifts or party favors to the events they are attending.

“We are excited to partner with David on the next phase of Evite’s growth journey,” Alan Ni, a partner at Francisco Partners, and Nick LaGrandeur, the vice president at Francisco Partners, said in a statement. “David has done an exceptional job of evolving Evite under his leadership by reinventing the brand and upleveling the product experience by really focusing on the needs of Evite’s users.” 

Today, Evite is swimming in an ocean of companies like it – Eventbrite, Paperless Post and Partiful are some of its most popular competitors.