Former £4bn tech unicorn Hopin has liquidated its UK operations as it moves its headquarters to the US.
The London-based company was once a darling of global venture capitalists, who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into its virtual events platform during the coronavirus pandemic.
But seven months ago, the company sold its core virtual events division to a California tech giant. The UK business continues to operate streaming platforms StreamYard and Streamable, which it acquired during the boom, and has also launched a new “community” platform called Superwave.
Founder Johnny Boufarhat has stepped down as CEO and been replaced by Badri Rajasekar, chief technology officer and head of product.
Filings to Companies House reveal that Hopin Limited has gone into liquidation. PwC is overseeing the process.
While Mr. Rajasekhar confirmed that Hopin would move its headquarters to Delaware, he maintained that “the business continues to grow faster than expected.”
“The company will be able to repay its debts in full,” he wrote in his petition for voluntary liquidation.
Founded by Boufarhat in 2018, Hopin grew at an incredible rate when the coronavirus shut down in-person events.
Several funding rounds reached a staggering £288m, including a Series C round in 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, valuing the company at around £4bn.
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Hopin has hosted hundreds of thousands of events on its platform and counts American Express, The Financial Times, Hewlett Packard, and more as customers. In just his year since launch, the company has served 85,000 organizations, expanded his fully remote global team to 400 people, and become Europe’s fastest-growing startup.
A series of executive hires and high-profile acquisitions followed, including the $250 million acquisition of live streaming platform StreamYard, video hosting company Streamable, and participant engagement company Jamm.
However, the rapid decline in virtual events following the pandemic has resulted in several staff layoffs.
In August, cloud communications company RingCentral acquired the company’s Events and Sessions products. Events is a platform for planning and producing virtual and hybrid events that are a key part of business, while Session was developed from Jamm and was used to manage interactive engagement during events.
Writing candidly in 2020 after a £32m Series A round, Mr Boufarhat revealed how a rare and severe reaction to medication led to him becoming ‘world allergic’ and eventually We arrived at Hopin. At one point, Hopin was on track to hit $100 million in annual revenue. Revenue.
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