Nowadays uses AI to automate the tedious parts of planning corporate events. It finds venues meeting user specifications, deals with back-and-forth negotiations, and gathers options.
Founded in 2023 by sisters Anna Sun, CEO, and Amy Yan, COO, Nowadays has since been used to book over $4 million worth of events.
And now it’s raising money to fund its expansion.
Y Combinator made a $500,000 investment in the company last year. That was followed by 40 separate investments made over a period of time that recently reached $2 million.
This funding will be used to hire engineers to accelerate the development of its AI-powered features.
Not only does Nowadays help with bookings, but it helps companies make financial decisions. “Let’s say you have a distributed company in 20 different countries. They are trying to figure out where to have their offsite. In 10 seconds, we will tell them what it will cost to fly their team members to different locations, so their decision factors in flight as well,” said Sun.
Nowadays’ Founder Remembers Weekends Spent Calling Ice Cream Trucks
The idea for the company was ignited after Sun graduated from MIT. Her older sister, Yan, was working at Google after graduating from Johns Hopkins. Both served as class presidents for their universities, organizing many large events.
Sun recalls spending weekends “calling ice cream trucks and aquariums to get quotes” or the time she had to personally pick up 2,000 McDonald’s McNuggets because there wasn’t a way to arrange a bulk delivery.
She set out to create a company that could streamline this. The company won a 2024 Skift Meetings Award for “Best Site-Sourcing Solution.”
Planners pay a 5% commission to use the platform, and venues are charged between 7-10%.
“As an IATA-certified travel agency, we’re able to receive commissions from venues when we bring them business, which helps streamline the booking process for our clients,” said Sun.
For companies with higher booking volumes, it offers a subscription model. In this case, clients pay an annual fee equivalent to roughly a 3% sourcing fee, which eliminates any additional fees for their bookings.
The company is developing free tools to support sales managers and planners, which it will soon launch.
