British startup Hopin, which allows conference hosts to run gatherings online, raises $125M Series B co-led by IVP and Tiger Global at a $2B+ valuation
- Britain's Hopin announced Tuesday that it's raised $125 million in a round of funding that values the firm at more than $2 billion.
Context & Ripple Effects
Hopin's Series B is the middle step of an unusually compressed funding ladder: just months after IVP led its $40M Series A in June 2020, the same lead returns alongside new money from Tiger Global at more than $2 billion — roughly a fiftyfold valuation step in under half a year, riding lockdown demand for online gatherings.
The arc kept steepening from here: sources soon had Hopin shopping a ~$400M Series C at a $5B+ pre-money valuation, it closed at $5.65B in March 2021, reached $7.75B by August, and an FT profile counted six acquisitions in a single year as the company spent its war chest.
First-order effects
- Hopin gains $125M and a Tiger Global endorsement to scale hosting infrastructure and sales while conferences remain forced online — with IVP doubling down rather than exiting.
- Tiger Global adds a British pandemic-winner to its portfolio alongside bets like Cerebras' ~$1B round and Nothing's $200M Series C, extending its early-entry strategy into European software.
Second-order effects
- The round sets a valuation benchmark that pulls Hopin's next raise forward — the $2.125B price becomes the floor cited when it seeks $400M more at double the value barely four months later.
- Rival virtual-events platforms now face a competitor with both top-tier crossover capital and the funds to acquire, as Hopin's subsequent six deals in a year made explicit.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and Tiger's own COVID-era activity was reported to be fueling a wave of fast-made unicorns — category-leading pandemic startups get consolidated by capital before the demand that created them normalizes, leaving investors exposed if in-person events return.
The trend: Crossover funds like Tiger Global are compressing startup funding cycles in pandemic-boosted categories like virtual events, turning months-old companies into multi-billion-dollar acquirers.