Hopin, the struggling virtual events startup valued at nearly $7.7B in June 2021, sells its Events and Session units to RingCentral for an undisclosed sum
Hopin, the virtual events startup that saw its star (and valuation) rise quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic, is most definitely coming down to earth.
Context & Ripple Effects
Hopin was the fastest riser of the pandemic events boom: a $400M round at a $5.65B valuation in March 2021, six acquisitions in a year, and a peak valuation near $7.8B by that August. By April 2022 the [[a:978246|FT reported the platform had fewer than 500 events listed on its Explore page, down from 15,000-plus]], and the company had raised $1B+ against that shrinking base.
Selling Events and Session to RingCentral — with founder Johnny Boufarhat stepping down as CEO — is the unwind of that peak: the assets built at pandemic valuations are being absorbed by an established communications vendor rather than standing as an independent company. The related coverage shows where the arc ends: by February 2024 Hopin's UK parent entered liquidation as the HQ moved to Delaware.
First-order effects
- RingCentral gains Hopin's Events and Session products outright for an undisclosed sum, adding virtual-event capabilities to its unified-communications stack while Hopin's core business and leadership are hollowed out.
- Johnny Boufarhat's exit as CEO removes the founder from the company he built to a $7.7B valuation, leaving Hopin to run down or restructure what remains.
Second-order effects
- RingCentral's rivals in unified communications — the same videoconferencing wave that made Hopin — now face a competitor bundling events software with phone and meeting tools, pressuring them to buy or build equivalents rather than compete on standalone events pricing.
- Hopin's six-acquisition spree in 2021 means its investors and the founders of acquired startups absorb the markdown: assets bought at pandemic prices are resold for undisclosed sums into a post-pandemic demand reset.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward pandemic-era category leaders being consolidated into established communications platforms rather than surviving as independents — a repricing of the entire virtual-events category as demand normalizes and the $7B-plus valuations of 2021 prove unsupportable.
The trend: Pandemic-inflated virtual events startups are being unwound, with their product assets absorbed by established communications vendors as in-person events return.