Hello and goodbye: The return of in-person events has impacted the use of virtual meeting platforms. Photo Credit: GettyImages/ChainarongPrasertthai
The return of in-person events continues to impact the demand for virtual meeting platforms.
Event tech company Hopin, which was valued at US$7.8 billion during
the pandemic, has cut 242 staff in its latest round of redundancies.
The new cuts bring the total number of layoffs this year to 380, as
the London-based start-up tries to focus on ‘sustainable growth’ in a
testing ‘macroeconomic’ climate.
Founded in 2019 by British billionaire Johnny Boufarhat, the company
was named Europe’s fastest-growing startup ever after it acquired
streaming service StreamYard.
But like other event tech companies, Hopin's rapid progress has hit the buffers.
In a statement, a company spokesman said: “We’ve made the very
difficult decision to reduce our workforce given the current
macroeconomic climate and need for our events product to move forward
efficiently.
"While we took preventative measures before looking at a more
significant restructure, it became necessary to simplify our events
business and supporting operations to build a profitable and sustainable
company.”
Staff involved in the cuts will get three months compensation and
benefits, share vesting options would be relaxed, and they would be
allowed to keep their company laptops.
Last week, another event tech platform Bizzabo laid off 120 people
this week – 30% of its 400 employees – in response to what it called the
‘swift economic downturn’.
Source: AMI