San Francisco-based virtual event specialist Hubilo, has made its fourth round of redundancies in 15 months, following what the CEO referred to as the ‘collapse of the virtual events industry’.
In a LinkedIn post, Hubilo CEO and founder, Vaibhav Jain said the virtual event platform had had 'ups and downs since 2020', when there was world-demand for virtual event products as a result of covid-19 measures limiting in-person events. However, this demand had now diminished.
“With the reopening of the world (and subsequent collapse of the virtual events industry), our plans had to dramatically change, and we've spent 2023 building and delivering the best webinar experience out there. The reality is - while we’re excited about the growth and impact we’ve been able to have in the webinar space, it's not yet sustainable with the size of our current organization,” the LinkedIn post stated.
Jain added: “Unfortunately, as a result, a number of our incredibly talented employees are now available for work.”
According to Skift, around 50 people, mostly from marketing and sales departments, were affected by the recent redundancies.
Jain founded Hubilo in 2015 as an offline attendee recommendation platform. When the pandemic forced the international in-person events industry to shutter between 2020 and 2022, Hubilo raised US$148.5m in funding in 2021 for ‘Investment to Script The Future of Events’ and to ‘Foster Greater Human Connection’. The company has also made several acquisitions.
One of Hubilo’s most recent acquisitions, Fielddrive, a Belgian-based event badge printing company, signifies Hubilo’s faith in a strong return of in-person events market.
While Jain offered to help redundant staff with personal references for future employers, former employees and event professionals were critical of the ‘last-minute layoffs’.
Rachael Moore, former senior director of marketing at Hubilo wrote in a LinkedIn post: "This morning when I opened LinkedIn, I was hit with several posts in my feed of former co-workers who just got laid off. Fourth round of layoffs in 15 months. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not."
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
