Skift Take
Hopin is acquiring Boomset to expand its offering into hybrid and in-person events. This latest acquisition announced Wednesday is part of Hopin’s multi-product strategy, focusing on adding onsite capabilities to its offering. Hopin is clearly aiming to become the event management platform for virtual, hybrid, or in-person events. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.
The acquisition of Boomset adds a range of onsite-focused tools and services to Hopin’s already impressive multi-product offering, currently geared mainly towards virtual events. With the in-person event market restarting in many regions, the company says it’s looking to provide immersive and interactive experiences from anywhere.
Name badge printing, self-service check-in kiosks, attendee tracking management with RFID/UHF/NFC, and cashless payments are some of what the Boomset acquisition brings to Hopin. Boomset also brings experience and expertise in collecting onsite data. By bringing together data from both online and onsite audiences, Hopin aims to provide substantial 360-degree audience analytics insights in a single dashboard.
With the industry expecting future events to be mostly hybrid, 69.3 percent according to our State of the Industry First Quarter 2021 Report, it’s clear that Hopin aims to become a holistic provider of event technology products and services, regardless of whether the events are hybrid, in-person or virtual in format.
“The events industry has changed forever and event organizers need a seamless solution that includes virtual and onsite technology and services. With the addition of Boomset, we will allow our customers the ability to scale and analyse any type of event by capturing both virtual and in-person audiences and data together. I am extremely proud to welcome the incredible Boomset team to Hopin as well as partner with Boomset’s Founder and CEO Kerem Baran, whose attention to company culture is highly valued at Hopin.”
– Johnny Boufarhat, CEO and Founder of Hopin
“Hopin has been transformational for virtual events and joining the organization will be powerful for our team and event organizers, particularly for the future of hybrid events. We believe an all-in-one platform, including Boomset’s seamless onsite event solutions, will deliver on Hopin and Boomset’s mutual mission to provide the best experience for our customers while continuing to scale at ‘Hopin speed.’”
– Kerem Baran, CEO and Co-Founder of Boomset
Since the beginning of 2020, Hopin reports scaling from six to more than 660 employees in 45 countries. Since February of last year, Hopin has raised more than $565 million in Series A-C funding. This prompted many in the industry to question if Hopin is really worth its $5.65 billion valuation.
As part of its multi-product strategy, Hopin acquired the mobile app development team from Topi the video streaming company StreamYard in 2020. In 2021, Hopin acquired video technology companies Streamable and jamm. It also recently announced an investment from LinkedIn in what appears to be an unprecedented connection with the undisputed leader of B2B social networking.
IN CONCLUSION
Despite recent challenges in showcasing its own ode to hybrid events, Hybrid Events: Unlocked, Hopin continues to make impressive strides in market share and is very openly investing in this space. It’s undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with in the virtual events world and it’s now making a calculated investment to secure a leading position in hybrid events.
