HyperKu acquires ECAL and fuels global growth

At a time that is proving difficult for most Australian businesses, ECAL’s global calendar communications and marketing platform is thriving, having been acquired by Singapore start-up HyperKu, and securing $1M in additional capital to fuel growth.

ECAL’s calendar communications and marketing platform enables any event-based organisation to deliver rich, dynamic content, straight to their audience, via their personal digital calendar.

With the onset of COVID, their clients were quick to develop new and interesting ways to keep fans engaged using ECAL’s adaptive technology. The National Basketball Association (NBA) and English Premier League (EPL) both launched highly successful eSports tournaments, whilst Formula E organised a 9-week ‘Race at Home Challenge’ simulator series, featuring professional drivers up against the best Sim racers and celebrities.

Closer to home, the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) season restarts have faced huge challenges, with constant interruptions and continual rescheduling due to the unpredictable nature of the COVID outbreak.

Performing Arts organisations are also turning to ECAL for solutions, such as The Australian Ballet with the launch of their ‘Digital Season’.

The importance of the ECAL platform in engaging and activating fans is what made them attractive to cofounders, Patrick Barrett and Remon Gazal at HyperKu.

“The ECAL acquisition makes perfect sense for us at this time. Some of the biggest event brands in the world are turning to ECAL to manage customer communications through this period of great disruption”, said Remon Gazal, former APAC President at Brightstar.

HyperKu’s capital partners for the ECAL acquisition include a Singapore-based Family Office who invest in highgrowth technology platforms, some of which have already signed partnership agreements with ECAL.

“We have entered a new era of digital engagement and entertainment, with a blending of exciting new digital events, and traditional live events. Uncertainty and change are the main constants, and the power of ECAL’s smart, dynamic communications for events is proving to be critically valuable – in sports, entertainment, media and beyond,”, says Patrick Barrett, who is also the CEO of ECAL.

During this COVID period, ECAL has won new business in eSports, virtual conferencing, and streaming services. Payments are also a major focus, with the recent announcement of a partnership with payments orchestration company PayDock, and impending announcements with two other key strategic partners in the marketing and events space.

“The new ownership structure for ECAL will provide the capacity for continued growth into new industries and territories, as well as a support network of people, portfolio business and capital to help make it all happen”, says Barrett. “This is an exciting time for us. Already, we have announced the appointment of sports media executive Alex Peebles as Chief Revenue Officer, who will lead our Asia expansion and help us go deeper into media. We expect to share more exciting news in the coming weeks.”

For further information, please visit https://ecal.com

About ECAL:

ECAL is world-leading calendar communications, marketing and data platform, used by 300+ major brands globally across sports, entertainment, media, ticketing and payments. Headquartered in Melbourne, with a presence in London, Los Angeles, Manila, Delhi and Singapore, ECAL’s smart ‘sync to calendar’ technology enables rich, dynamic, event-based communications straight to calendar, for better business outcomes.

About HyperKu:

HyperKu is a Singapore based start-up, co-founded by Patrick Barrett and Remon Gazal, and the owner of ECAL. They are currently seeking similar post-revenue enterprise platform businesses that have proven use cases, clear product differentiation and robust technology, and are ready to scale.

For all media enquiries, interviews, and imagery please contact:

Olivia Novello
Public Relations Specialist
OM Digital
+61 431377114
olivia@omdigital.com.au

Sports Media Veteran Joins ECAL to Lead Revenue and Territory Charge

Melbourne, Australia / Singapore: ECAL, the leading provider of smart calendar communications and marketing, has announced the appointment of Alex Peebles as its Chief Revenue Officer. Based at ECAL’s new Singapore office, Peebles is a key pillar in the company’s global expansion strategy.

Before joining ECAL, Peebles was SVP Southeast Asia at sports streaming service DAZN, and prior to this held various senior executive roles at Perform Group in Australia and the UK, including Managing Director of the Perform NFL Partnership.

“At this time of unprecedented change and unpredictability, the power of ECAL’s smart, dynamic communications solution for events-based content is proving to be critically valuable – in sports, entertainment, media and beyond,” says ECAL CEO, Patrick Barrett. “It has also fast-tracked growth in relatively fresh areas such as streaming, conferencing and payments. So we are thrilled to have someone of Alex’s experience and talent join us, to support our global expansion.”

At ECAL, Peebles will be responsible for all revenue generating operations, with a focus on scoring transformative strategic partnerships, growing enterprise licensing, and productising ECAL’s data and insights business.

“ECAL is already a fantastic business and I’m delighted to come on board” says Peebles. “There is now a significant opportunity to both develop the solutions we offer and develop the breadth of our partner set. Further announcements will soon follow!”

Peebles has a proven track record of new product and territory growth, together with a strong commercial acumen, invaluable industry experience and a welcome, partner-based approach to business relations.

Peebles joins ECAL following recent announcements of strategic partnerships with SportsTG (Stack Sports) and fast-growing payments orchestration platform PayDock. The opening of the Singapore office further highlights the company’s global ambitions.

ECAL is a world-leading calendar communications, marketing and data platform, used by 300+ major brands globally across sports, entertainment, media, ticketing and payments. ECAL’s smart ‘sync to calendar’ technology enables rich, dynamic, event-based communications straight to calendar, for better business outcomes.

For more information, please contact:

ECAL
Patrick Barrett, Founder & CEO
Phone: +61 411 650 445
Email: patrick@ecal.com
Website: https://ecal.com

In conjunction with the NBA season restart on 30th July, we’ve launched our new in-game ⚡️ ‘Milestone Alerts’ feature!

Watch out for the ⚡️ symbol in game titles to uncover important player milestones for that game. Whether it’s Carmelo Anthony moving into 95th spot for All-Time total rebounds or LeBron James tying Paul Silas and Tony Parker for 32nd on the NBA All-Time games list, we’re harnessing advanced statistical analytics to give you more of the moment! How good is that!

Available for selected sports only, please contact us if you would like to find out more about adding Milestone Alerts to your ECAL experience.

Don’t miss it when the NBA returns, sync your team’s schedule and enjoy the moment here.

Players will return to the court in a very different looking NBA competition as the season resumes on July 30.

22 teams will participate (normally 30) in the re-start, including the top eight teams in each conference along with the six teams currently sitting within six games of the eighth seed in each conference.

The Arena, the Field House and Visa Athletic Center at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex will host all games for the remainder of the season, with no fans in attendance.

Upon the official release of the revised NBA schedule, basketball fans received updated fixtures straight into their digital calendar of choice, complete with localised broadcast information and direct access to advanced stats, latest video, NBA shop and more, all from the convenience of the calendar.

ECAL’s dynamic ‘sync to calendar’ functionality will continue to deliver the latest NBA fixture information, straight to the personal digital calendars of fans right across the globe, to keep them up-to-date and connected.

If the season structure or match information changes, so too will the digital calendars of subscribed fans. How good is that!

It’s going to be a massive re-start! Don’t miss it when the NBA returns, sync your teams schedule and stay connected here.

The Rugby League World Cup has been the pinnacle of International Rugby League since 1954. In 2021, for the first time, the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair competitions will be staged in a single, celebratory event, culminating in an epic Finals Weekend to crown the champions of each. The RLWC 2021 is set to be an unmissable event!

RLWC2021 will use the official fixture release on July 21st as a major promotional event, with ECAL’s dynamic ‘Sync to Calendar’ service providing connected fans with access to the schedule, along with important ticket release dates first!

ECAL’s state-of-the-art digital calendar service delivers RLWC2021 with a tremendous platform to ‘connect’, ‘engage’ and ‘activate’ its audience well before England and Samoa kick off proceedings at St James’ Park on Saturday 23 October, 2021.

ECAL is proud to be the official calendar marketing service provider of RLWC2021. Choose your team across the three competitions here and receive the schedule first, thanks to ECAL.

Stay tuned for more exciting news!

Instant payments in-calendar set to become a reality.

London, UK / Melbourne, Australia: Payments orchestration platform PayDock has announced a multi-year agreement with ECAL, a leading calendar communications platform to offer seamless calendar-driven payment solutions. Currently relied on by 3m+ monthly active users, ECAL is a preferred pipeline for time-sensitive, actionable communications between brands and consumers. PayDock’s capabilities as a mature payments orchestration platform provide a strong foundation for ECAL’s payments roll-out during 2020.

Patrick Barrett Founder and CEO at ECAL

“Today, the calendar sits squarely at the forefront of the merchant-consumer relationship. Our success in driving consumer action and response from right-time communications will be elevated via seamless in-calendar payment capabilities. ECAL Pay powered by PayDock will offer consumers a simple, direct and timely way to pay bills, support charities or buy tickets to their favourite events instantly, and without leaving their preferred personal time-management platform. Merchants similarly benefit from improved cashflow, reduced costs and greater transparency within their customer relationships.”

Rob Lincolne Founder and CEO at PayDock

“Our mission at PayDock has always been to stand behind businesses that transform the merchant-consumer relationship. ECAL is at the forefront of value-added brand engagement. We are highly excited along with Pat and the team at ECAL to assist merchants in the dramatic enhancement of customer experiences through the provision of timely, actionable and efficient payment capabilities. Offering ECAL capabilities as part of the PayDock services ecosystem ‘out of the box’ will enhance the value our payment service providers, merchants and consumers receive from each other.”

PayDock is a payments orchestration platform serving an international merchant base and over 30 payment service providers globally. PayDock makes it easy for businesses to rapidly harmonise and deploy payment ecosystems for increased value.

ECAL is a world-leading calendar communications and marketing platform, used by hundreds of major brands globally in sports, ticketing, media and now payments. ECAL’s ‘sync to calendar’ technology enables smart, dynamic, event-based communications straight to calendar, for better business outcomes.

Clients include Premier League, NBA, LaLiga, Formula E, AFL, NRL, MYOB, and Ticketek to name a few.

For more information, please contact:

PayDock
Rob Lincolne, Founder & CEO
Phone: +44 7828 948 683
Email: rob@paydock.com
Website: paydock.com

ECAL
Patrick Barrett, Founder & CEO
Phone: +61 411 650 445
Email: patrick@ecal.com
Website: ecal.com

The Premier League is set to make its return after suspending its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, confirming the fixture schedule for the first three match rounds of the resumed 2019/20 season.

The League kicks back into action on Wednesday 17th June, Aston Villa hosting Sheffield United under lights at Villa Park and Manchester City tackling Arsenal at Etihad Stadium. Like with most live sports that are returning, there will be no fans.

Liverpool requires just two more wins to wrap up the title upon the season resumption whilst the at the bottom of the table Norwich City is four points behind everyone else and six points from escaping the relegation zone.

Premier League subscribers were instantly updated with all the latest fixtures straight to their calendar, and will continue to be updated as the fixture evolves. How good is that?!

It’s going to be a massive re-start! Don’t miss it when the Premier League returns, sync your teams schedule here.

So Binge, a website that delivers everything you need to binge and more is using ECAL’s Sync to Calendar technology to engage music, tv and movie trivia buffs via its Chatbot.

Throughout June, Tuesday night is Quiz Night, with participants testing their knowledge on a range of subjects including Taylor Swift, Noughties Music and the MARVEL cinematic universe.

The versatility of ECAL’s Sync to Calendar technology is showcased with So Binge, with the button integrated into its facebook messenger chat bot.

With the help of ECAL, fans won’t miss a moment of virtual quiz night, with the So Binge digital calendar providing up-to-date details on the trivia subject, instructions to participate, with handy alerts and direct access to join in, all from the convenience of your personal calendar.

Think you know your movies, tv and music? Jump online and chat with the So Binge bot or sync the Virtual Quiz Night schedule here.

After two months of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFL has released the next four rounds (Rounds 2 to 5) of the Premiership season, with a focus on starting with a bang in a treat for players, fans and broadcasters across the game.

The AFL season bounces back into action on Thursday 11th June, with Collingwood hosting reigning premiers Richmond under lights at the MCG.

The match will be followed on Friday between modern day rivals Hawthorn and Geelong before the Adelaide Crows and Port Power clash in the Showdown.

Luckily, AFL Club ECAL subscribers have been instantly updated with all the latest fixtures straight to their calendar, and will continue to be updated as the fixture evolves. How good is that?!

It’s going to be big! Don’t miss it when footy returns, sync the full AFL Fixture to your calendar here or from your teams fixture page.

After two months of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the next two rounds (Rnds 3 and 4) of the NRL season have been announced, with a focus on starting with a bang in a treat for players, fans and broadcasters across the game.

The NRL season kicks back into gear on Thursday 28th May, with the Broncos to host the Eels at a venue in Queensland (to be announced).

The clash will be followed on Friday by an all-Queensland derby between the Cowboys and Titans before Latrell Mitchell and his Rabbitohs line up against the Sydney Roosters in a match almost two months in the making.

Luckily, NRL ECAL subscribers have been instantly updated with all the latest fixtures straight to their calendar, and will continue to be updated as the fixture evolves. How good is that?!

It’s going to be big! Don’t miss it when sporting rivalry returns, sync the NRL Fixture to your calendar here from the official NRL website.