Steven Greitzer became a “wedding person” by accident.
In 2016, two friends asked him to officiate their wedding, and the experience proved to be a lightbulb moment. Greitzer ultimately spent a year stressing out about what it meant to build out a wedding service that was personal, and mostly found “Mad Libs templates” online.
“If there’s one thing this ceremony shouldn’t be, it’s generic,” said Greitzer. “So, I devised my own process about how to crush their ceremony…As I was asked by more and more friends, and friends of friends, it became apparent this wasn’t just affecting me and my circle, but that it’s affecting millions of Americans each year. Can we solve this problem at scale and do it well?”
Since then, Greitzer has been embedded in the wedding industry and is uniquely equipped to talk about its joys and foibles. In 2021, he founded the platform Provenance, which helps couples, families, and bridal parties personalize their vows, toasts, and entire wedding ceremonies. Provenance’s seed round was led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from WndrCo, Maveron, and A*, and the company has “supported hundreds of thousands” of weddings to date, Greitzer exclusively tells Fortune.
Greitzer says that the wedding business is a space that has all the love (and giddy spending) you expect—and it’s a very big market.
“The wedding industry is huge in the U.S., with 2.2 million weddings a year,” he said. “The average spend per wedding is like $36,000, which is as much as the average spend on a car. That’s an average across everything from backyard elopements and luxury celebrity weddings, and everything in between.”
But it’s also a fragmented industry, one that companies have struggled to get their arms around, especially since there are very few repeat customers (with any luck).
“It really is such a special industry to get to play in, but nonetheless the wedding industry is certainly challenging,” said Greitzer. “We respect that, given the nature of it that hopefully your clients are using you once…So, it does require a different perspective on how you play your game to try to create a viable business in the space. For us specifically, our aspirations go beyond the wedding industry, as well.”
There have been some big-name startups that have made waves exclusively in weddings, but not that many. Zola, for one, has raised about $240 million from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, TCG, BAM Elevate, and Canvas Ventures, according to Crunchbase. Another, Joy, has raised more than $100 million from investors like General Catalyst, Sound Ventures, and Y Combinator (also per Crunchbase). The wedding tech industry has seen some notable M&A, as was the case for the 2019 merger of The Knot and WeddingWire.
But it’s hardly a space that VCs are investing in en masse, I suspect in part because of its spectacular fragmentation and odd customer dynamics. According to PitchBook data, in 2022, there were 30 U.S. VC-backed deals in the wedding industry, valued at nearly $119 million. Those numbers dropped precipitously in 2023, to 13 deals that shook out to almost $19.5 million. This year so far, there have been four venture deals in the wedding industry.
Ultimately, the wedding sector isn’t one that anyone has grabbed completely yet, says Greitzer. How will we know when someone has?
“I would say you start having brands that engender real brand love and are able to earn their referral value,” Greitzer told me. “I think that’s a facet of it, but it’s also just a massive space that is made for a company to grow to real value in.”
There was a reason I decided to look at Provenance and the wedding industry now: By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have headed out of the office to my own wedding. (And yes, I know you may be wondering: The wedding’s in Malibu, there will be a carousel, and my dad and I are dancing to Katy Perry’s “Roar,” which was absolutely his idea.)
So, I’ll see you soon (but not on Monday),
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Vercel, the San Francisco-based frontend cloud platform for websites for The Washington Post, Porsche, and other companies, raised $250 million in Series E funding. Accel led the round and was joined by existing investors CRV, GV, Notable Capital, Bedrock, and others.
- Sigma, a San Francisco-based developer of business intelligence and data analytics tools, raised $200 million in Series D funding. Spark Capital and Avenir Growth Capital co-led the round and was joined by NewView Capital and existing investors Snowflake Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, D1 Ventures, Xn Ventures, and Altimeter Capital.
- Agora, a New York City and Tel Aviv, Israel-based real estate investment management platform, raised $34 million in Series B funding. Qumra Capital led the round and was joined by Insight Partners and Aleph.
- Voxel51, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based platform for building visual AI models, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Tru Arrow Partners and existing investors Drive Capital, Top Harvest Capital, Shasta Ventures, and ID Ventures.
- CoLab Software, Newfoundland, Canada-based developer of collaboration technology for mechanical engineering and hardware development teams, raised $21 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors Y Combinator, Killick Capital, and Pelorus VC.
- Aeropay, a Chicago, Ill.-based payment processing platform, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Group 11 led the round and was joined by Chicago Ventures and Continental Investment Partners.
- Codesphere, a Redwood City, Calif.-based program designed to allow developers to program and scale complex applications directly in the cloud, raised $18 million in funding. Creandum led the round and was joined by existing investors LEA Partners, Begin Capital, 42CAP, and 468.
- Watershed Health, a New Orleans, La.-based platform designed to improve care coordination between health care providers, health plans, hospitals, and the entire care ecosystem, raised $13.6 million in funding. First Trust Capital Partners led the round and was joined by FCA Venture Partners, Create Health Ventures, Impact Engine, 450 Ventures, and others.
- Gamma, a San Francisco-based AI-powered presentation platform, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Script Capital, South Park Commons, Lorimer Ventures, and Fellows Fund.
- Caeli Wind, a Berlin, Germany-based platform for analyzing and marketing wind energy locations, raised €11 million ($11.9 million) in Series A funding. Notion Capital led the round and was joined by Santander Alternative Investments and existing investors.
- Leya, a Stockholm, Sweden-based AI-powered legal workflow platform, raised $10.5 million in seed funding. Benchmark led the round and was joined by Hummingbird, SV Angel, and Y-Combinator.
- Kudos, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based smart wallet app and browser extension designed to maximize credit card rewards and benefits on purchases, raised $10.2 million in Series A funding. QED Investors led the round and was joined by existing investor Patron and others.
- GoodShip, a Nashville, Tenn.-based platform for freight network orchestration and procurement, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Ironspring Ventures, Chicago Ventures, FUSE VC, Cercano Management, and others.
- Phenomix Sciences, a Wayzata, Minn.-based developer of genetic tests designed to detect how obesity patients will react to certain treatments, raised $5.5 million in Series A funding from DexCom, Labcorp, and existing investors including Health2047.
- Angel AI, a Nashville, Tenn.-based AI-platform designed to provide age-appropriate internet content for children aged 5 to 12, raised $4.8 million in seed funding. Cortical Ventures led the round and was joined by Village Global and angel investors.
- Daffodil Health, a San Jose, Calif.-based platform that uses AI to automate health care pricing processes, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Maverick Ventures led the round and was joined by EPIC Ventures.
- Bluprynt, a Washington, D.C.-based developer of disclosure infrastructure for crypto projects, raised $1.7 million pre-seed in funding from Robinhood, Flourish Ventures, Plural VC, and others.
- Tulyp, a Paris, France-based trade finance platform for small to medium-sized businesses, raised €1.5 million ($1.6 million) in seed funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by Kima Ventures, Purple Ventures, and angel investors.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Battery Ventures took TrueContext, an Ottawa, Canada-based field-service workflow company, private for approximately CAD$150 million ($110.2 million).
- The Chernin Group invested $38.5 million in Classic Football Shirts, a Manchester, U.K.-based authentic soccer shirts marketplace.
- Strata Information Group, a portfolio company of Fort Point Capital, acquired RHB, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based marketing consulting firm for higher education institutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- KPS Capital Partners acquired Innomotics, a Nuremberg, Germany-based supplier of electric motor and large-drive systems, from Siemens for €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion).
OTHER
- Crescent Energy (NYSE: CRGY) agreed to acquire SilverBow Resources (NYSE: SBOW), a Houston, Texas-based oil and gas company, for $2.1 billion.
PEOPLE
- Allied Industrial Partners, a Houston, Texas-based private equity firm, hired Anjali Agarwal as chief financial officer, Steven Hirsch as director, and Zaid Elouad as senior associate. Formerly, Agarwal was with Salient Partners, Hirsch was with The Sterling Group, and Elouad was with Beckway. The firm also promoted Lee Roberts to Senior Associate.
- Garnett Station Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, promoted Jordan Garay to partner.
