Influencer-Based Events Marketing Company, Pollen, Welcomes Mydung Tran as Chief Financial Officer

San Francisco, CA — February 10, 2020 Renovata & Company is pleased to announce the placement of Mydung Tran as chief financial officer for Pollen, an international events marketing company offering a platform that people use to promote group experiences to their peers. Pollen recently raised $60 million to significantly expand its business, and Tran is a seasoned financial executive with a wealth of experience working with companies poised for growth.

Pollen provides an online marketplace where influencers, or what the company calls “ambassadors,” sell experiences, such as concerts, music festivals, vacations, skydiving and chartered yacht trips to their online acquaintances. Over the past year, 35,000 members have used Pollen’s service—and have sold more than 330,000 experiences. Pollen helps customers get group discounts and rewards from vendors such as Ticketmaster, for example, and then it takes a commission on the sales.

Backed by Northzone, Sienna Capital, Draper Esprit, Backed and Kindred Ventures, Pollen has raised $100 million to date, and revenue for this year is on track to be up 250% from last year. With rounds of funding and several successful acquisitions in the travel space, Pollen has become the market leader across North America—and is tapping into an increasingly larger share of a $12 billion market. While Pollen’s roots are in music festivals and concerts, travel now accounts for most the company’s revenue, and new funds will enable expansion into other categories that feature group activities, such as restaurants, fitness and live sports events.

“Mydung is a seasoned executive with a great deal of experience in various financial disciplines, from financial planning and analysis to mergers and acquisitions, operations, treasury and accounting,” says Joanna Chang, Renovata & Company partner. “She has designed and implemented effective and efficient financial systems for several global companies and has a proven track record in managing growth environments.”

Prior to joining Pollen, Tran was chief financial officer for Happy Money, an innovative financial services provider. She has also served as chief financial officer of Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), an advertising and marketing services company. Other past roles include senior vice president of strategy and business development at Veritone, Inc., senior director of corporate development at Ticketmaster, vice present at Deutsche Bank, chief financial officer of snacki.com and senior accountant at KPMG.

 

About Renovata & Company
Renovata & Company is a global executive search and private equity advisory firm. We are trusted by financial sponsors, their portfolio companies and public corporations to deliver transformational leaders and valuable investment insights. Renovata & Company’s executive search activities are focused on the most complex search assignments—board-level mandates which include board directors, CEOs, CFOs and other C-suite executives, as well as investment professionals and Operating Partners—and we provide strategic counsel to clients across the technology, digital, business services, industrial, consumer and retail sectors. Renovata & Company has relationships with over 50 of the top 100 private and growth equity firms globally. Our private equity advisory services include diligence support, backable executive introductions and deal sourcing delivered by our affiliate, L Capital Advisors. We also make equity co-investments alongside our private equity clients through our investment affiliate, L Capital.  We are privately held and operate from five offices across two continents: Boston, Hamburg, London, New York and San Francisco. www.renovata.com

 

Contacts:
Joanna Chang
Partner

Lois Padilla
Consultant
 

 

Location:
Renovata & Company
Transamerica Pyramid
600 Montgomery Street
Suite 2400
San Francisco, CA 94111
USA
+1 415-263-9168


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