Family celebrations of all kinds, gatherings to commemorate special dates, acts of recognition for professionals, business or commercial meetings... these are some of the reasons why individuals and companies hold a festive event. But organizing such a gathering is not always easy, as it usually involves dedication and requires the participation of professionals to ensure success.
To cover these needs and ensure that everything goes well, the Partfy.com services platform emerged. The platform is a marketplace for celebrations and events that connects individuals, companies, and public or private entities with qualified professionals from different artistic disciplines (magicians, musicians, entertainers, disc jockeys, comics) and gastronomic, as well as event organizers or entertainment experts, among others.
The project belongs to the startup Entretenemos, created by Eric Ferrer and Gerard Guiu in Terrassa, in 2017, which has just begun an expansion phase with the integration of the also startup Celebrents, from Madrid, and which specializes in subscription service packages. A growth that also involves the development of SaaS software that they want to turn into a tool that encompasses all the functionalities that professionals in the sector need to improve their daily management, whether of the shows they offer or of all administrative tasks to control their finances, for example.
With this software, on the one hand, "professionals and companies can further enhance their online visibility and will access a greater volume of job opportunities with different models for attracting new clients," says Eric Ferrer, CEO of Entretenemos. On the other hand, the software will be a specific SaaS management tool for artists and professionals in the events and celebrations industry, offering more than 100 services to cover any administrative and financial need.
The integration of Partfy and Celebrents occurs in a recovery phase for the sector, after COVID, with limitations on social interaction, directly impacted the business. "In the midst of the pandemic, we couldn't sell any service because there was no possibility of celebration, and we created the page #lafiestaencasa (the party at home) where you could hire online services for magic, music, guitar, entertainment… and we sold 200 online services! And all the money went solely to the providers, to help them in that very complicated situation," states Ferrer.
Both companies share the same mission: to accelerate the digitalization of the events sector through the use of technology. In recent years, they have helped nearly 200,000 users organize their celebrations and have generated more than 16 million euros in business volume for their network of professionals and companies. For users and professionals, "it is important that we not only offer a comparison between different budgets, but that the contracting of services includes cancellation insurance," among the set of benefits of the marketplace.
Currently, they have coverage for all of Spain (especially in Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, Tarragona, Valencia, Seville, and Zaragoza) and between the two platforms they offer diverse services from 14,500 providers. Monthly, they bill 80,000 euros, between subscriptions, the SaaS software platform, and service transactions, "a figure still lower than what we had before the pandemic when our billing was 130,000 euros monthly." The combined staff is 20 people, five of them in the Madrid offices.
Both Partfy and Celebrents ---a startup founded in 2016 by Gonzalo Fernández and Maxime Gilly, in Madrid--- have resorted to private investors for their development. Between both companies, they have raised 1.8 million euros in private (85%) and public (15%) funding, of which just over one million corresponds to Partfy ---which counts private investor César Bardají among its partners--- and 750,000 euros to Celebrents, which has investors such as José Martin Cabiedes, Jordi Ber (Habitísimo), and Lanai Partners. "We want to balance the business and enter into profitability this year and prepare for the first quarter of 2023 a Series A funding round," specifies Ferrer.