On December 12, 2020, the news published that Hopin acquires Topi for unrevealed amount. It was informed that the acquisition happened to promote the company’s hybrid events and bring its clients to be more online-driven considering the current world’s climate, as well as to enable them to be more connected with communities and people with common interests.
About Topi, Hopin, and the Acquisition
Topi is a mobile app that focuses on providing in-person event service. It aims to connect individual through face-to-face live events. Regarding the acquisition, David Aubespin, its CEO and co-founder will join their new company as the Vice President of Product, while Eric Sellin, its other co-founder is going to take the position of principal engineer of mobile solutions development.
Through his blog post, Aubespin verified the goals to create a collaborative work of the two conference platform providers, in order to connect offline and online audiences. He also stated his excitement in the future of hybrid and virtual events due to the merging.
He revealed as well how the CEO and founder of the acquiring virtual conference company, Johnny Boufarhat wishes to see their team’s progress to continue flourishing under the brand, along with hopes for innovative invention of connecting the world.
The report of Hopin acquires mobile app Topi is a start of its long acquisition spree made by the company that follows afterward. The general public considers that this decision is specifically interesting, because it is the first step of its aggressive power move to tackle not only virtual, but also in-person and hybrid types of events in the several upcoming years.
Moreover, what makes it interesting is the assumption behind the acquisition’s motives. It seems like the basis of the deal is beyond two joining companies due to design fit, such as Hopin acquires Topi to drive hybrid events, but also the visible match of their clients, engineering, and even culture.
Aubespin also communicated how the event technology of virtual meeting platforms has benefitted from the advanced smart ranking algorithms, social media integration, and geo-fecing – in order to allow the users to find out broader communities or audiences that share common interests. Regardless of whether the users want to attend online of offline events from the now virtual event app, the platform presents similar experience and value for them.
The Continuous Raise of Hopin
The currently rising event technology provider, Hopin, has been actively pursuing acquisition deals. After the revealed merger above, the company announced several following deals, including Streamable, jamm, Boomset, StreamYard, and Attendify – all in a span of a year.
Moreover, the unicorn online event platform startup has also raised more than a billion investment through its Series A, B, C, and D funding. In the early of August 2021, the UK-based online conference platform provider announced that the Series D funding has provided the company with $450 million, which increases its valuation to $7.75 billion.
Combined with the fact that it successfully grows the employee number from only 6 individuals to over 800 staffs in 47 countries, it cements its position as one of the European most massive private companies and most rapid-growing European technology startup amongst other virtual event companies.
