Buzzy online events startup Hopin just raised $6.5 million from Accel and Northzone, after fighting off other major investors

Hopin

Hopin founder and CEO Johnny Boufarhat

• London-based Hopin, an all-in-one online events platform, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding from Accel, Northzone, Seedcamp, and a number of angel investors.
• The company, founded last year, drew frenzied interest from investors keen to be a part of the buzzy startup which offers to host any type of live event such as conferences and company events.
• "Hopin was built out of the idea of connecting people and tries to solve a clear problem," Johnny Boufarhat, Hopin's CEO and founder told Business Insider. "We think we will be the fastest growing startup in the world."
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London-based Hopin, an all-in-one online events platform, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding from Accel, Northzone, Seedcamp, and a number of angel investors.

The company offers to host any type of live event, be it a conference or a company gathering. One example it gave would be to host Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile trade event globally which was recently cancelled over coronavirus worries.

"Hopin was built out of the idea of connecting people and tries to solve a clear problem," Johnny Boufarhat, Hopin's CEO and founder told Business Insider. "We think we will be the fastest growing startup in the world."

Business Insider understands that major funds including Sequoia, Index Ventures, and LocalGlobe were interested in a deal with Hopin, which opted for Accel after a two-month fundraising process.

"We had interest from the US and Europe and it was the most exciting time," Johnny Boufarhat told Business Insider in an interview.

The funding was raised without a formal pitch deck, Boufarhat added.

Hopin

Hopin event page

Other backers include Web Summit's Amaranthine Fund and Slack Fund. In addition, a number of high-profile angel investors participated, including Supercell founder Ilkka Paananen, UiPath founder Daniel Dines, Intercom founder Des Traynor, GoCardless COO Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas and Miro founder Andrey Khusid.

Since July last year, Hopin has been available for early access and seen over 1,000 events hosted on the platform and a 10,000-strong waitlist of event organisers, according to Boufarhat. The investment will be used by Hopin to continue to build out its platform, expand its team and quickly scale. The company has grown to 15 staff since September last year, Boufarhat said.

Unusually, Boufarhat has met very few of his team in person, preferring to work and hire virtually.

"Hopin is the only platform that can truly replicate an offline event online, no matter the size," said Luciana Lixandru, partner at Accel, who led the fundraise and will join Hopin's board. "When we met Johnny and saw his drive and ambition, the incredible product and Hopin's impressive organic growth, we knew this was a team with whom we wanted to partner."

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