Institutional Investors Bet On Exclusive Event Spaces With $220M Convene Fundraise
Convene Hospitality Group raised $220M from a group led by institutional capital just months after the premium event and meeting space provider acquired NeueHouse, a defunct members-only social club.
Institutional giant TPG is making its first investment in CHG along with equity from current shareholders, including funds associated with alternative credit firm Ares Management. The capital will be deployed for new development, selective acquisitions and investments in technology and production capabilities.
The capital injection comes as CHG, which has 38 locations in the U.S. and the UK, embarks on a new chapter to integrate and scale its family of brands, including NeueHouse, CHG said Tuesday.
"The way the world works, meets and gathers has significantly evolved since we debuted in 2009, and we're blurring the lines between hospitality and traditional events to meet that shift," Convene CEO Ryan Simonetti said in a statement. “This capital allows our house of brands to expand through strategic market growth and thoughtful mergers and acquisitions."
Ares first invested in CHG in 2022, and Brad Friedman, a partner at the fund managing some $623B in assets, said the latest investment reflected the firm’s strong conviction in CHG’s platform.
“We look forward to supporting CHG as it continues to differentiate itself with the premium spaces, experiences and talent that clients seek," he said.
CHG, which is also backed by Canadian investment giant Brookfield, is planning to open at least three new venues around New York City's Manhattan borough this year. It’s building a 450-person space at the Scholastic Building in the trendy SoHo neighborhood and has plans for immersive event venues with projection mapping capabilities dubbed The Aperture and The Mallory.
Convene has a concentration of locations in New York and London and also has a presence in Northeast cities, Chicago and San Francisco. Its spaces range from conference rooms that can be rented for meetings to expansive event spaces that can host up to 1,500 guests.
It acquired the intellectual property of NeueHouse through a court-approved purchase in January after the members-only coworking and social club filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September and abruptly shuttered all locations. CHG began operating the 115K SF NeueHouse Madison Square location a few months before the brand’s bankruptcy.
CHG was created at the end of last year after Convene acquired London-based Etc.venues in 2023 and consolidated its brands under the CHG banner in September.
Private social clubs are growing in popularity, not just in major cities from Los Angeles to Miami but also in secondary markets like Philadelphia, where niche car enthusiasts opened the Cannonball Club, which includes a coworking space, restaurant and bar, and exclusive event space. A similar concept popped up in Houston in 2023.
Soho House, a popular and publicly traded private club operator with locations in posh neighborhoods across major U.S. cities, cut a $2.7B deal late last year to go with MCR Hotels and backed by funds including Apollo Global Management.
That deal looked like it was on the rocks in January when MCR failed to put up the $200M needed to fill the gap to take Soho House private, but the sellers said they found new backing to move ahead later that month.
