Hyve Group Plc, the listed UK-based exhibitions group, is buying Fintech Meetup in a deal worth £3.8m and a potential earnout of £38m in years two and three. The shows were launched by Anil D. Aggarwal and Simran Rekhi Aggarwal, the founders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop (acquired for $145m by Hyve in 2019) and Money 2020 (acquired by Ascential Plc).
Fintech Meetup is a US facilitated meetings event in the fintech sector which Hyve had previously identified for expansion. The event was established only last year and facilitated over 20,0000 meetings in its first year between 2,000 participants, generating revenue of £1m but losses of £2.9m including launch costs.
In November 2021, Hyve acquired the 121 Group, a meetings programme organiser in the mining sector across EMEA, North America and APAC, for initial consideration of $28m (£21m) and an earnout which is expected to result in a total consideration of £42-50m, and is subject to a cap of £60m.
121 Group had been founded by Toby Duckworth, Pablo Martin, Charlie Hastings and Leo Stemp in 2014. It organises invitation-only bi-annual investor meetings around the world. In addition, it operates an investor relations service for mining companies and The Assay – an online information and marketing site for the sector.
The Hyve portfolio includes: Shoptalk, Spring Fair, MosBuild, Bett, Mining Indaba and the Retail Meetup digital platform. Mining Indaba will combine with 121’s Investment Cape Town in May 2022.
| Hyve Group Plc | 2023* | 2022* | 2021 | 2020 |
| Revenue | £186.2m | £126.0m | £55.2m | £99.4m |
| Operating profit (loss) | £32.8m | (£2.5m) | £26.9m | (£15.7m) |
