Fourwaves

What Fourwaves does

Fourwaves (legal entity: Les Technologies Informatiques Fourwaves Inc.) is a Quebec City-based SaaS provider of conference management software purpose-built for academic and scientific events. The platform unifies six modules — event website publishing, registration and payments, abstract management, peer review, conference program building, and virtual poster sessions — into a single web-based product. The technology stack combines drag-and-drop form builders, customizable peer review workflows (double-blind or open, with manual or random reviewer assignment), multi-track program management with live streaming, and integrated video calling for poster sessions via Vonage with end-to-end encryption. An AI-powered Event Assistant, launched in 2024, automatically scans event configurations for misconfigurations, missing translations, and typos before publishing, and the platform also offers AI-generated event website content. Infrastructure is hosted across AWS and Microsoft Azure, with payments processed via Stripe, Moneris, Global Payments, and PayPal.

The company operates a freemium-plus-tiered-subscription model: a free plan with unlimited events charges a service fee on credit card transactions, while paid annual plans range from $899 (Essential, up to 100 abstracts) to $1,799 (Advanced, 200 abstracts and full event website) to $5,000 (Pro, multi-track events with custom domains), with custom pricing for Professional Conference Organizers and large university departments. Go-to-market blends product-led growth (self-serve onboarding in 20 seconds, free plan) with sales-assisted 15-minute demos for enterprise buyers, supported by content-led SEO targeting competitor replacement queries and active community engagement at academic conferences. Fourwaves reports thousands of events managed annually across 58 countries, with a 1-10 person team, and serves a customer base that includes NASA, NIH, MIT, Stanford, Harvard Medical School, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Berkeley Lab, BASF, and numerous Canadian and European universities. The company holds multiple G2 badges (Leader, Best Support, Best Estimated ROI, Easiest To Do Business With) and a 4.8/5 rating across 66 reviews on G2 and Capterra.

Name

Fourwaves

Legal name

Les Technologies Informatiques Fourwaves Inc.

Website

https://fourwaves.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fourwaves is a Quebec-based SaaS platform that provides all-in-one conference management software — including abstract management, peer review, registration, payments, program building, and virtual poster sessions — purpose-built for academic and scientific event organizers worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Conference Management Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Executive Summits & Invitation-Only Forums (MPAGAGAK)

Keywords

• Conference management software
• Academic event platform
• Abstract management software
• Peer review software
• Virtual poster sessions

Headquarters

HQ city

Quebec

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans (SaaS): Fourwaves offers tiered annual subscription plans (Essential, Advanced, Pro) with pricing based on features and abstract submission limits. All plans include unlimited registrations. Paid tiers provide access to increasingly advanced features including full event websites and custom domains for multi-track events. Custom pricing available for PCOs, university departments, and high-volume institutions.
2. Free Plan with Transaction Fees: A free plan offers unlimited events with a service fee applied only to credit card transactions. This freemium-style approach enables wide adoption among smaller events while generating revenue from payment processing.
3. Payment Processing Services: Fourwaves facilitates online payments for event registrations through integrated payment processors (Stripe, Moneris, Global Payments, PayPal), earning transaction fees on credit card payments.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Fourwaves is an all-in-one conference management software platform purpose-built for scientific, academic, and research events. It integrates abstract management, peer review workflows, registration and payments, event website building, multi-track conference program building, and virtual poster sessions with integrated video conferencing into a unified web-based SaaS platform. The platform is sold via tiered annual subscription plans (Essential, Advanced, Pro) with a free plan available, and serves universities, research institutions, scientific societies, and professional conference organizers worldwide.

Product overview

Fourwaves is an all-in-one conference management software platform purpose-built for scientific, academic, and research events. The platform consists of six integrated modules: Event Website (for publishing modern mobile-friendly event sites), Registration & Payments (for collecting registrations and processing online payments), Abstract Management Software (for collecting and managing abstract submissions), Peer Review Software (for distributing and managing peer reviews with customizable workflows), Conference Program (for building multi-track event programs with live streaming capabilities), and Virtual Poster Sessions (for hosting interactive poster presentations with integrated video conversations). An AI-powered Event Assistant is included free on all plans to automatically review events for issues. The platform integrates with payment processors (Stripe, Moneris, PayPal, Global Payments), video calling (Vonage), customer support (Intercom), and analytics (Microsoft Azure).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fourwaves Conference Management Platform Unified SaaS platform for managing scientific and academic conferences, combining abstract management, peer review, registration, payments, event website, program building, and virtual poster sessions for university and research event organizers.
• Abstract Management Software

Quantifiable outcome

• 97.9% Organizer Satisfaction
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Vonage (Nexmo)coreTechnology or IntegrationVonage provides video call processing during virtual poster sessions with always-on end-to-end encryption (AES-128 or AES-256). Video conversation rooms are created on-the-fly using Vonage's platform, enabling participants to start video conversations in one-click without needing external zoom links.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe processes payment information for event registrations. Data is stored in the United States under the Data Privacy Framework.
• MoneriscoreTechnology or IntegrationCanadian payment processor for handling registration payments. Data is stored in Canada under Adequacy Decision.
• Global PaymentscoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processing provider for event registrations. Data transferred to the United States under Standard Contractual Clauses.
• PayPalcoreTechnology or IntegrationAlternative payment processing option for event registrations. Data transferred to the United States under Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS hosts event data including forms, website content, and settings to help organizers manage events and publish event websites. Data stored in Canada under Standard Contractual Clauses.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Whova: Whova is an all-in-one event management platform widely used by academic and association conferences. It overlaps on registration, agenda, networking, and virtual event features, and is explicitly named as a competitor in Fourwaves' SEO content.
• Oxford Abstracts: Oxford Abstracts provides abstract submission, peer review, and conference management software for academic and scientific events. It serves universities, conferences, and journals in the same niche as Fourwaves, with direct feature overlap in submission and review workflows.
• EasyChair: EasyChair is a long-established academic conference submission and review system used broadly by scientific communities. It overlaps directly with Fourwaves' abstract management and peer review modules, making it the closest head-to-head competitor in the research-organization niche.
• Ex Ordo: Ex Ordo is a conference management platform purpose-built for academic and scientific events, with submission, peer review, and program modules that compete feature-for-feature with Fourwaves' core offering for university departments and research societies.

Broad incumbents

• Cvent: Cvent is the largest enterprise event management platform, with broad capabilities across registration, venue sourcing, and on-site logistics. It increasingly targets academic and association segments, making it a broad incumbent competing for the same institutional buyers as Fourwaves.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a horizontal event ticketing and registration platform with broad consumer and SMB reach. While not specialized for academic workflows, it competes for the same organizer budgets when institutions choose a general-purpose tool over a vertical one.
• Bizzabo: Bizzabo is an enterprise event experience platform with registration, website, and virtual event modules. It serves larger association and corporate conferences that overlap with Fourwaves' enterprise and PCO target segments.
• Cadmium (eventESB): Cadmium's eventESB is an association-focused abstract, speaker, and event management platform widely used by scientific and medical societies. It overlaps with Fourwaves' vertical offerings for societies and research organizations, though with a heavier association-software footprint.

Emerging players

• Scholastica: Scholastica provides open-source academic publishing software with peer review workflows. While focused on journals rather than conferences, its review automation and academic user base are thematically adjacent to Fourwaves' peer review module.
• PCO (Professional Conference Organizers) — ConfTool: ConfTool is an academic conference management system used widely in Europe for abstract handling, reviewing, and registration. It is a niche peer targeting the same scientific event organizers, with a narrower feature set than Fourwaves' all-in-one platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fourwaves
• Xx.com/fourwavesco

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fourwaves