Hopin (company)

Last updated

Hopin
Industry Videoconferencing, VoIP, and Instant messaging
FoundedJanuary 10, 2020;5 years ago (2020-01-10)
Founder Johnny Boufarhat
Defunct2024
FateAcquired by Bending Spoons
Successor
Website hopin.com

Hopin was a technology company of British origin. It developed a proprietary video teleconferencing online event-hosting platform. [1] It was a fully-remote company without an office address. [2]

Contents

History

Hopin was founded in 2020 by Johnny Boufarhat. Its platform allowed meeting participants for conference attending and networking online, exchange virtual business cards, and get a summary of their connections after an event. It become increasingly popular in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. [3]

Hopin raised over $1 billion in funding from various investors, including Accel, IVP, Coatue Management, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures, and others. [1] [4] Its peak valuation was $7.8 billion in August 2021. [5]

The company made several rounds of layoffs in 2022 as demand for online events shrank and in-person events resumed. [6]

In August 2023, following a share buyback for shareholders of over $500M+, the company sold its events unit assets—including its technology, customers and engineering and product teams—to RingCentral for $15–50 million. [7] [8] Boufarat stepped down as CEO. The company continued to operate its live-streaming and video hosting products Streamyard and Streamable. [9] [4] [10] The company's valuation was approximately $400 million. [11]

In February 2024, Hopin moved its headquarters to the United States and closed its UK Corporate entity. [12] Hopin was acquired by Bending Spoons in April 2024. [13] [14]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "UK virtual events firm Hopin raises $125 mln from Tiger Global, Accel". Reuters . January 4, 2022. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  2. ↑ "CEO Secrets: 'My billion-pound company has no office'". BBC News. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  3. ↑ Browne, Ryan (March 4, 2021). "Hopin rides the pandemic-driven boom in online events to a $5.65 billion valuation". CNBC. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Griffith, Erin (December 7, 2023). "From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money". New York Times. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. ↑ Browne, Ryan (August 5, 2021). "Two-year-old events start-up Hopin boomed in the pandemic. Now it's a $7.75 billion business". CNBC. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Events platform Hopin cuts 29% of jobs in second wave of layoffs". UKTN. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  7. ↑ Sources differ on $15 or $50 million. The Ringcentral SEC filing says the purchase of the software was for $15 million, with an additional $35 million contingent on performance targets.
  8. ↑ Burroughs, Callum; Lockwood, Tasmin; Cogley, Michael (August 10, 2023). "How $7.75 billion Hopin went from pandemic darling to selling off its flagship business for $50 million and handing back some investor cash". Business Insider. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  9. ↑ Elder, Bryce (August 2, 2023). "Hopin: crash landing for Europe's highest-flying Covid unicorn". Financial Times Alphaville. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  10. ↑ "RingCentral - Financials - SEC filings - 10-Q, August 2023". RingCentral . August 7, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2025. On July 31, 2023, the Company completed its purchase of certain technology assets and customer relationships from Hopin, Inc. ("Hopin"), a virtual events platform for an upfront purchase consideration of $15 million and an additional consideration of up to $35 million (contingent consideration) based on the achievement of specified performance targets.
  11. ↑ Primack, Dan (August 3, 2023). "Hopin, once valued at $7.6 billion, makes some major changes". Axios. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  12. ↑ Scammell, Robert (February 27, 2024). "Hopin winds down UK business in US relocation". UKTN. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Bending Spoons to Acquire StreamYard, Leader in Live-Streaming and Video-Recording Solutions". www.businesswire.com. April 9, 2024.
  14. ↑ Neves, Miguel (April 15, 2024). "Hopin To Be Acquired by Bending Spoons". Skift Meetings. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.