Sydney-based events startup Evatto has closed a $1.02 million pre-seed round led by Perth venture capital firm Purpose Ventures. The year-old company will use the capital for product development, international expansion, and hiring as it advances its artificial intelligence platform for complex event operations. Founded in 2025 and originally known as Wiingman, Evatto has already named the Invictus Games and Canada Snowboard among its early customers.
A platform built for operational complexity
Evatto provides an AI native enterprise system that manages event scoping, stakeholder coordination, approval workflows, documentation and operational readiness. Its AI agents are designed to automate much of the administrative work required to deliver large events. The platform targets the spreadsheets, email threads and inherited templates that remain standard practice across the events sector.
Founders with inside knowledge
Chief executive Hailey Mason spent more than two decades producing large scale events for brands including Red Bull, Casio and FIFA, with additional programme work linked to F1, SailGP, Vodafone, Canon, Reebok and Harley-Davidson. She founded Evatto in 2025 with chief operating officer Chris Toward, an experienced Australian events industry executive. The pair entered the Startmate Summer 26 cohort under the Wiingman name before rebranding and presenting at Demo Day held during Blackbird's Sunrise festival.
Early customers and market validation
Evatto reports that it is working with organisations such as the Invictus Games and Canada Snowboard on programmes that include World Cups and the X Games. The company also says pilot negotiations are underway with several further enterprise accounts. These relationships are company reported and unaudited, which is normal at pre-seed stage but means the customer list demonstrates early traction rather than verified revenue.
Funding allocation and expansion plans
The $1.02 million pre-seed round will be directed towards product development, international expansion and hiring. The company believes its enterprise platform addresses an immediate pain point because event programmes worth millions are still run on manual administration. Mason described the market as massive and said enterprise teams are ready for a system of work built specifically for this problem.
Investor perspective and accelerator momentum
Purpose Ventures partner Kylie Gerrard said the firm backed Evatto because the founders combine deep domain depth with conviction and global ambition. She noted that more than 50 years of combined industry experience was a rare combination in early stage companies. Startmate's alumni announcement also confirmed the round's closure and Purpose Ventures' lead, reinforcing the news beyond trade press coverage.
The road ahead
Chief operating officer Chris Toward said early discovery conversations with large global event teams confirmed that administrative workloads remain significant and under addressed. He stated that freeing customers from spreadsheet hell and allowing them to focus on strategy and experience is the core purpose of the company. The business now faces long enterprise sales cycles and established habits in the events industry.
Evatto's first funding milestone signals confidence in vertical AI tools built by operators who understand enterprise event workflows. The immediate test will be converting pilots into contracted deployments and proving that international expansion can follow named sporting clients. If the company can scale beyond early adopters, it may establish a stronger position in the competitive events technology market.