London startup Zance bets on accountability as events move beyond vanity metrics

As the cost of hosting conferences, summits and networking sessions continues to climb, a London-based technology startup is arguing that the biggest problem with in-person events is not turnout, but accountability.

Zance, a UK startup backed by the Mayor of London’s Amplify Ventures and accelerator Foundervine, has launched an artificial intelligence platform designed to measure the real return on investment (ROI) of physical events—shifting the focus away from headline numbers such as registrations and attendance, towards outcomes such as business leads, partnerships and follow-on deals.

The launch comes at a time when organisers are grappling with what many describe as a post-pandemic reset. While “Zoom fatigue” has revived interest in physical gatherings, sponsors and corporate partners are becoming more demanding, increasingly asking what value their money actually delivers.

“For decades, event success has been reduced to how full a room looks,” said Ifeanyichukwu Ukwu, Zance’s chief executive officer. “But a crowded hall does not automatically translate into value. Organisers are juggling ticketing tools, spreadsheets and manual follow-ups, yet still have no real visibility into what actually happens between two people who meet at an event.”

Zance’s platform aims to close that gap. Positioned as both a digital concierge for attendees and an analytics engine for organisers, the system uses an AI-powered personal assistant to analyse participants’ professional profiles and objectives, curating targeted introductions rather than leaving networking to chance. Conversations can be logged in real time, turning informal chats into trackable leads or follow-ups.

For organisers and sponsors, the platform provides live dashboards and post-event reporting, including a proprietary metric—the Zance Event Success (ZES) Score—which attempts to quantify outcomes across all stakeholders, from attendees and sponsors to hosts.

Early pilot programmes suggest the approach may be gaining traction. According to the company, events using Zance recorded attendance rates of up to 70 percent, alongside a doubling of post-event business conversions. Organisers also reported fewer no-shows and less unproductive networking.

Industry observers say this speaks to a wider shift in the events economy. Large global conferences can afford bespoke event apps and data teams, but mid-sized corporate gatherings, professional associations and curated networking events often lack both the budget and the tools to demonstrate value.

Zance is deliberately targeting this middle market. “There is a huge accountability gap below the enterprise level,” Ukwu said. “These are high-value rooms—boardrooms, founder meetups, industry roundtables—but they’re still being evaluated with crude metrics.”

The company itself emerged from that frustration. Its founding team—Ukwu, chief technology officer Isaac Oduh and partnerships lead Enya Adesulure—have collectively organised more than 150 events. According to Ukwu, sponsors routinely questioned impact, even when events were well attended.

“We kept seeing strong programming fail to justify its value after the lights went off,” he said. “That was the trigger. If you can’t clearly show outcomes, sponsorship becomes harder to defend, especially in a tighter economic climate.”

With backing from Amplify Ventures, Zance is now preparing for a broader rollout across the UK and laying the groundwork for expansion into other European markets. The company plans to raise a pre-seed funding round by the end of the first quarter of 2026 to deepen its AI capabilities and accelerate customer acquisition.

The bet is that, as budgets come under pressure, organisers who cannot demonstrate measurable value will struggle to survive.

“The next phase of the events industry will reward those who can prove impact, not just attendance,” Ukwu said. “If outcomes can’t be measured, the question sponsors will keep asking is simple: why are we here at all?”

For an industry long driven by optics and intuition, Zance is wagering that data—and accountability—will decide who wins next.