Virtual
event specialist Hubilo, has made its fourth round of redundancies in 15
months, following what the CEO refered to as the ‘collapse of the virtual events
industry’.
In a LinkedIn post, Hubilo CEO and founder, Vaibhav Jain said the virtual event platform had had 'ups and downs since 2020', when there was world-demand for virtual event products as a result of covid-19 measures limiting in-person events. However, this demand has now diminished.
“With the reopening of the world (and subsequent collapse of the
virtual events industry), our plans had to dramatically change, and we've spent
2023 building and delivering the best webinar experience out there. The reality
is - while we’re excited about the growth and impact we’ve been able to have in
the webinar space, it's not yet sustainable with the size of our current
organization,” the LinkedIn post stated.
Jain added: “Unfortunately, as a result, a number of our
incredibly talented employees are now available for work.”
According Skift,
around 50 people, mostly from marketing and sales departments, were affected
by the recent redundancies.
Jain founded Hubilo in 2015 as an offline attendee recommendation platform. When the pandemic forced the international in-person events industry to shutter between 2020 and 2022, Hubilo raised US$148.5m in funding in 2021 for ‘Investment to Script The Future of Events’ and to ‘Foster Greater Human Connection’. The compnay has also made several acquisitions.
One of Hubilo’s most recent acquisitions, Fielddrive, a Belgian-based event badge printing company, signifies Hubilo’s faith in a strong return of in-person events market.
While Jain offered to help redundant staff with personal references for
future employers, former employees and event
professionals were critical of the ‘last-minute layoffs’. Rachael Moore, former senior director of marketing at Hubilo wrote in a LinkedIn post, "This morning when I opened LinkedIn, I was hit with several posts in my feed of former coworkers who just got laid off. Fourth round of layoffs in 15 months. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not."
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
