Canvas

What Canvas does

Canvas Events Ltd. is a London-based venue-finding marketplace operating across London, Manchester, and soon Amsterdam. The company connects corporate event planners, PR agencies, brand marketing teams, and production companies with curated, hand-picked venues for hire including corporate receptions, product launches, conferences, brand activations, and private parties. Its self-serve digital platform enables search by location, event type, capacity, and budget, while a premium human-led Concierge Service handles end-to-end venue sourcing, site visits, and negotiations for events with minimum budgets of £5,000.

The platform is built around AI-assisted search and matching capabilities (branded as Matchmaker AI) layered over a curated inventory of 700+ venues, with proprietary performance tracking that surfaces verified venue response rates and response times. Canvas also benefits from a strategic partnership with sister company Location Collective, which provides exclusive access to off-market spaces, private homes, and film locations not indexed by generalist search tools. The technical stack combines recommendation engine capabilities with process automation for venue discovery workflows.

Canvas generates revenue through standard industry commissions paid by venues on confirmed bookings, with the service offered free of charge to event planners. Founded in 2013 by Antony Iredale and Sascha Michel, the company has accumulated 250,000+ users and £28M in cumulative event demand, serving a broad roster of enterprise customers including Adidas, Amazon, Chanel, BlackRock, Airbnb, and L'Oréal. The business is bootstrapped, privately held, and operates as a UK-registered private limited company.

Name

Canvas

Legal name

Canvas Events Ltd.

Website

https://canvas-events.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Canvas Events is a UK-based venue-finding marketplace connecting corporate event planners, PR agencies, and production companies with 700+ curated venues across London and Manchester, using AI-assisted matching layered over human concierge curation and earning revenue through venue booking commissions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Venue Marketplace

NAICS

Tour Operators (561520)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Venue Sourcing & Site Coordination (HSACAAAD)

Keywords

• Venue booking marketplace
• Event venue sourcing
• Corporate event venues
• Venue concierge service
• AI venue matching

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Venue Commission: Venues pay a standard industry commission once a booking is confirmed. Event planners use the service free of charge. Commission is the primary revenue stream.
2. Concierge Service (Commission-based): Complimentary venue finding service for corporate events; venues pay standard industry commission on confirmed bookings. No fees charged to clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Canvas operates a venue-finding marketplace connecting corporate and private event planners with curated venues across London and Manchester. It combines a free, AI-assisted self-serve platform for searching and booking venues with a human-led concierge service for complex, high-value events, monetized via commissions paid by venues on confirmed bookings.

Product overview

Canvas operates as a venue-finding marketplace and concierge service for corporate and private events. The core product is the Canvas Venue Platform, a marketplace connecting event planners with curated venues across London and Manchester, enhanced by the Matchmaker AI feature for smart venue matching. The Concierge Service is a premium add-on offering human-led venue curation with access to off-market and exclusive spaces. A List Your Venue service allows venues to join the platform. The company combines human expertise with AI-assisted search to deliver venue finding, contact, and booking services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Canvas Venue Platform The primary venue-finding marketplace connecting event planners with curated venues across London and Manchester. Features include hand-picked venue listings, direct contact with venues, real-time response rates and times, and AI-assisted search. Free to use for event planners; browse by 60+ London neighbourhoods, 30+ event types and 30+ venue types.
• Concierge Service A human-led venue finding service where dedicated specialists (e.g., Lead Concierge) handle the entire venue sourcing process including brief interpretation, venue shortlisting, site visit arrangement and negotiation. Unlocks access to off-market and exclusive venues. Requires a minimum venue budget of GBP 5,000; curated shortlists delivered within 24-48 hours.
• Matchmaker AI AI-powered search tool using smart matching algorithms to connect event planners with suitable venues based on event requirements, preferences, capacity, budget and historical performance data.
• List Your Venue A venue onboarding service allowing venue owners and managers to list their properties on the Canvas platform, gaining visibility to over 250,000 event planners and receiving enquiries.
• Manchester Venue Expansion Extension of the Canvas platform to a second UK city, adding 700+ curated venues in Manchester with the same curated, direct-contact, free-to-use model available alongside London.

Quantifiable outcome

• 250,000+ event planners use the platform
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers39 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Location CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSister company providing access to film locations, private homes, estates not marketed publicly, and temporary/meanwhile spaces. Through this relationship, Canvas offers access to off-market venues that are not publicly listed or searchable online.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Peerspace: US-headquartered marketplace for hourly venue rentals, including off-market and unique spaces for events, productions, and meetings. Closest US analog to Canvas's curated + off-market positioning.
• Hire Space: UK venue marketplace connecting event organisers with venues for corporate events, weddings, and parties. Direct competitor in the same London-centric venue booking category with a similar self-serve + concierge hybrid model.
• Headbox: UK-based venue booking platform specialising in corporate and private events with curated spaces, digital booking flow, and human support. Closest like-for-like competitor in the UK venue marketplace category.
• Tagvenue: Global online venue marketplace with a strong UK/London presence, allowing event planners to search and book unique spaces. Operates a similar self-serve venue discovery model with commission-based venue revenue.
• Splacer: Marketplace for booking unique, off-market venues and spaces for events, productions, and meetings. Closely aligned with Canvas's positioning around distinctive, hard-to-find inventory and curated supply.

Broad incumbents

• Cvent: Large, established enterprise event management platform with venue sourcing as part of a broader event tech suite (registration, marketing, attendee management). Competes with Canvas at the corporate event planning layer but offers a much wider portfolio.
• Eventbrite: Public events marketplace and ticketing platform with a self-serve venue and event creation flow. Adjacent rather than directly competitive — focuses on ticketed public events rather than private corporate venue sourcing.
• The Knot: Large wedding and events planning platform with venue directory and vendor marketplace. Adjacent overlap in venue discovery, with primary focus on weddings rather than corporate events.
• Bizzabo: Enterprise event experience platform offering registration, venue and supplier management, and analytics. Sits in the same corporate event planning workflow as Canvas but is a broader event management suite.

Emerging players

• Gather: Event planning and venue directory platform with curated listings for weddings, corporate, and social events. Smaller and more regional than Canvas but operates a comparable venue discovery model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/canvasvenues
• Facebookfacebook.com/CanvasVenues
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/canvas-events

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

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 Canvas