Inside Manta Media Capital: Toby Duckworth’s Vision for Accelerating Event Startups
Meet Toby and the Manta Media Team
Toby Duckworth has spent nearly two decades at the intersection of B2B media, live events and investor relations. He’s best known as co‑founder of 121 Group, the specialist omnichannel meetings platform serving the global mining investment community. What began as a self‑funded startup in 2014 scaled into a global portfolio and multi‑million‑dollar business, culminating in its $52 million acquisition by Hyve Group in 2021.
Since then, Toby has remained firmly embedded in the industry, investing in, acquiring and rebuilding profitable international event businesses including World Bio Markets and Blue Earth Summit. That operational experience underpins his role today as Managing Partner and Investment Committee Lead at Manta Media Capital, the firm he founded in late 2025.
Manta Media is built by operators, not observers. Toby is joined by former and current 121 partners Pablo Martin, Charlie Hastings and Leo Stemp, each experienced builders of global B2B event brands—alongside industry veteran Doug Emslie, former CEO of Tarsus Group. The partnership is strengthened further by Anna John and Steve Monnington, who bring extensive commercial, operational and growth expertise. Together, the group brings nearly 180 years of combined sector experience: a board designed not just to fund new ventures, but to accelerate them.
In this piece, we explore Manta Media’s philosophy through Toby’s eyes, from the industry gaps he believes remain unaddressed, to the role Manta Media intends to play in shaping what early‑stage event businesses can achieve.
What does Manta Media represent?
After years of launching, scaling and exiting events, Toby began to see a recurring pattern: talented founders often understood their markets but lacked the structure, capital or strategic support they needed to evolve from a strong idea into an investable company.
“The exhibitions market is mostly only growing through acquisition. Very few organisers actually launch their own events…”
This is the gap Manta Media Capital was built to close: backing founders earlier and equipping them with the operational and strategic support to accelerate growth dramatically.
“You’ve got amazing ideas, and you’re in the market. We’re going to put our experience on top, add money, and make your Year 2 look like Year 5.”
At its core, Manta Media is about compressing the founder journey, removing friction, adding experience, and helping strong operators build value faster.
What Manta Media is not
Toby is equally clear on what Manta is deliberately not designed to be.
Unlike investor collectives that spread capital thinly or operate at arm’s length, Manta Media is built around meaningful involvement and accountability. That means:
Taking significant stakes
Putting real capital to work
Being directly embedded in the businesses it backs
Rather than investing passive capital or a loose network of advisors, Manta Media’s team is an extension of its founders, applying lessons learned from building, scaling, and exiting event businesses themselves.
As a result, Manta Media’s portfolio is intentionally slimmer and more deliberate. By backing fewer companies, the team can commit more deeply, and play a practical role in their founders’ journeys. This hands-on philosophy isn’t revolutionary. It’s designed to address untapped opportunities that Toby sees in the events industry.
Where does Toby see untapped opportunity in the events sector?
When Toby talks about opportunity in the events industry, it comes less from crystal-ball predictions and more from what he sees as obvious gaps hiding in plain sight.
For example, he’s very candid about the number of exhibitions that, in his words, are simply “trundling along.”
“There are a lot of exhibitions that haven’t been challenged and are just trundling along. And they’re not ‘must attend’, but ‘I have to go’.”
These are established shows that haven’t really been challenged or rethought in years.
From his perspective, disruption doesn’t mean tearing everything down and starting again; sometimes it’s as practical as changing the location or adjusting the timing.
He’s equally energised by what he describes as geographic whitespace: successful formats thriving in one market that could be replicated elsewhere.
For talented events professionals, this is where Toby sees the real opportunity. Many operators and founders spot these gaps every day, from formats that could be modernised to markets that are ready for something new, but they lack the capital or broader support network to pursue them. That is, until now.
This is the space Manta Media exists to unlock.
What can we expect from Manta Media in the years ahead?
When Toby discusses the future of Manta Media, he doesn’t frame it in terms of headcount or scale. If anything, his vision for Manta over the next five to ten years is defined by restraint.
Manta Media, he explains, is not interested in being the loudest brand in the room. Instead, success will be measured through the companies it helps build.
“The things we’ll shout about will be the assets. They can be as loud as they like… but Manta itself will be quiet, like the name.”
The intention is for Manta to operate quietly in the background, with the success of its portfolio companies doing the talking through their growth and eventual exits.
Rather than chasing volume, Toby’s focus is on quality: backing a small number of well-chosen ventures, being deeply involved, and letting the outcomes speak for themselves. If his philosophy holds, Manta’s legacy will be measured by not how how visible it becomes, but by the strength and credibility of the companies that pass through its hands.
To learn more about Manta Media Capital and how to apply for support and funding contact us.
For further insight from Toby on Manta Media read his conversations with Flashes & Flames and Business of Events.
