Organising corporate events can be a thankless task with a lot of time spent trawling the internet for new ideas and potential suppliers. As a member of the cultural committee when he worked for Greenhouse Software, Donnchadh Healy had first-hand experience of the pain points and quickly realised that the market needed a one-stop shop that connected companies with potential suppliers for corporate events.

Two years on and Booka, which does just that, has launched on the Irish market.

“With Booka, companies can connect with and secure vendors for catering, wellness, entertainment and team-building activities quickly and efficiently,” Healy says. “We aim to provide inspiration so companies can find and try new ideas. We offer transparent pricing so there are no hidden costs to worry about and we provide secure payments via Stripe so there is no need to set up multiple purchase orders or vendor approvals.

“However, Booka is more than just a booking platform,” adds Healy, a TCD law and business graduate who joined Greenhouse from college and spent three years there before striking out on his own.

“Our search and filter functionality, live availability and booking, pricing tool, custom offer feature and mobile app are all unique selling points.

“So too is our plan to incorporate end-to-end event project management features, employee engagement and feedback, budget approval flows, invite management and the ability to gather actionable metrics and data around every event.

“We will also incorporate AI into the platform to assist in automating as many elements of event planning and execution as possible. In short, helping companies to elevate their events and turn them into a competitive advantage.”

Booka will make its money by charging 10 per cent commission on bookings made via its platform (suppliers will not be charged at this point) and the company’s big push at the moment is to add what Healy describes as “quality vendors” to the database.

So far, there are more than 20 live on the platform, with another 35 in the pipeline covering all sorts of needs from a magician to coffee, ice cream and food trucks, dessert and cake-grazing tables, live cocktail demonstrations and wellness events such as breathing workshops, yoga sessions, meditation and nutrition consultations. Healy says event venues will be added in due course.

Booka’s initial focus is the Irish corporate market (with existing events companies also as potential customers), but Healy has plans to expand into Britain and the US without delay. “Our intention is to land and expand within the larger international companies we work with here and to serve them in markets beyond Ireland,” he says.

An interesting sustainability twist to Booka is that Healy is keen to introduce ways of reducing food waste at corporate events.

“The idea is to partner with a not-for-profit to donate excess food whenever feasible,” he says. “We are also planning to provide consumption metrics to companies so they make more accurate estimates of the amount of food needed for events.”

Booka is open for business from both corporate clients and potential suppliers and Healy has plans to expand the platform’s reach to allow employees of corporate clients to use its service for personal events with reduced commission fees. Companies will also be able to give employees gift vouchers to use on the platform.

Between personal and private investment and a priming grant from Meath Local Enterprise Office (LEO), Booka’s start-up costs have been in the region of €170,000 and Healy’s next step is to apply for pre-seed funding from Enterprise Ireland.

“In addition to the funding, Meath LEO gave us a mentor, who was invaluable when we were starting off,” Healy says. “More recently they secured us a new mentor through Enterprise Ireland who has played a hugely important role in terms of guiding us to the best go-to market option and expansion strategy.”

Reporting on: www.irishtimes.com