Event tech company Hopin has
cut 242 staff in its latest round of redundancies.
The virtual event platform, which was valued at $7.8bn during
the pandemic, has reduced its headcount by about a third this year as the
demand for videoconferencing wanes.
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 start-up 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.
Earlier this month event tech platform Bizzabo laid off 120
people – 30 per cent of its 400 employees – in response to what it
called the ‘swift economic downturn’.
