Morressier: Modernizing Academic Conferences

A New Challenger in Virtual Conferences: Morressier

While Hopin currently leads the virtual conferencing market, a new company is gaining traction by targeting a specific, underserved area: academic conferences.

Series A Funding

Morressier, a platform designed for virtual conferences and scholarly publishing, has recently secured $18 million in Series A funding. This round was spearheaded by Owl Ventures, with participation from existing investors Cherry Ventures and Redalpine Venture Partners.

The Founder's Insight

Sami Benchekroun, the founder, observed a recurring issue during his childhood spent attending medical and scientific conferences with his parents. He noticed a significant loss of valuable information after each event.

“Researchers would present their findings through physical materials like posters and USB drives, but this knowledge was often lost after the conference concluded,” he explained. “Important work in fields like cancer and HIV research was being shared offline, then effectively disappearing.”

Addressing Knowledge Ephemerality

Recognizing this problem, Benchekroun began working in 2014 to digitize the initial exchange of knowledge at conferences.

He emphasized the importance of accessibility, stating, “The goal is to democratize access. Researchers from Africa and Asia often lack the opportunity to attend major conferences in the US or Europe. Digitizing the content allows us to broaden participation.”

An End-to-End Software Solution

Morressier has evolved into a comprehensive software platform aimed at modernizing the academic conference experience.

The platform facilitates the creation of conference landing pages, manages research submissions, and streamlines the peer review process. It moves traditionally offline tasks, like reviewing research on Excel and Word, to an online environment.

Conference Workflow and Analytics

Morressier creates a permanent content library linked to both virtual and in-person conferences.

The platform also handles content dissemination and provides event hosts with valuable post-event analytics, revealing how research is being utilized.

Livestreaming capabilities were integrated in early 2020 to provide a complete solution.

Growth and Current Status

Morressier currently boasts over 700,000 registered users and has hosted events for prominent organizations like the American Chemical Society and the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers.

The company generates revenue through flat fees charged to societies for platform usage and conference organization, as well as a per-document fee based on the amount of research uploaded.

Impressive Growth Metrics

Morressier experienced substantial growth in 2020, with a sixfold increase in authors and a thirteenfold increase in documents on its platform.

This resulted in $4.5 million in sales. The company has expanded its team from 28 to a planned 100 employees by the end of 2021.

The Impact of the Pandemic

The founder acknowledges that the pandemic accelerated adoption by reducing bureaucratic hurdles within the education sector.

“Adoption in research and education often takes longer due to governmental processes,” he noted. The company’s four-year journey to secure initial funding highlights this challenge. However, the growing acceptance of virtual events has enabled Morressier to secure further investment.

Now, the focus is on demonstrating that this pandemic-driven growth can translate into sustained, long-term success.