Combined companies will supercharge virtual event experiences, enabling event organizers to bring professional-quality video streaming capabilities to their events on Hopin
Hopin, a leading virtual events platform, announced today that it has acquired StreamYard, a live video streaming studio that allows content creators to produce professional-quality video streaming experiences. The purchase will allow Hopin to provide advanced video production features to Hopin event organizers. In addition to eventually integrating its features into the Hopin platform, StreamYard will continue to also offer its live streaming studio tools to independent content creators. Hopin will pay a total purchase consideration of $250 million to acquire StreamYard, comprised of cash and stock.
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“And they’ve now acquired two companies—first Topi, and now StreamYard. To pull this off in the first year of operation is unprecedented. The combination with StreamYard is incredibly powerful and will further fuel Hopin’s trajectory as it charts the future of online experiences.”
“When I founded Hopin, I wanted to replicate all the best aspects of physical events — from one-on-one networking to exploring an expo — and more. As Hopin became the go-to virtual venue for event organizers, the next product to add was professional-quality video production, so I’ve long had my eye on the advanced studio tools that StreamYard provides,” said Johnny Boufarhat, founder and CEO of Hopin. “StreamYard is the solution of choice for live streamers around the world because of its superior ease of use and great features. This acquisition fits in with our goal to build the best products that help people connect and communicate better through engaging online experiences. I can’t wait to make it available to all of our customers so they can uplevel their events and truly dazzle their attendees.”
“Live streamers love StreamYard for its ease of use, stability, and professional-quality streams and I am thrilled that we can now easily bring those three pillars to event organizers around the world,” said Geige Vandentop, co-founder and CEO, StreamYard. “We have been integrating with Hopin as a third-party broadcast solution for months and it just makes sense to officially join forces and combine our efforts. At StreamYard, we are now committed to serving the needs of content creators and event producers alike.”
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StreamYard, based in Tualatin, Oregon, was founded in 2018 by Geige Vandentop and Dan Briggs. They were inspired by live streaming’s rapid growth in the gaming community, which ultimately allowed people to turn hobbies into careers. However, they recognized that live streaming production required expensive hardware and an understanding of complex technology, a considerable barrier for most businesses wanting to create compelling live content for their audiences. To solve this, they developed a streaming solution that was simple to use by anyone, but powerful enough to create professional-quality content. The two founders bootstrapped StreamYard and grew revenues to nearly $10 million in early 2020 before quickly hiring a team of 19 and reaching over $30 million in annual recurring revenue by year-end. Today, StreamYard serves over 100,000 paying customers, adding 10,000 paying customers per month, and powers millions of broadcasts every month with a diverse global user-base ranging from social media influencers to large corporations.
StreamYard is a cloud-based solution that works in any web browser to empower businesses, entertainers, hobbyists, nonprofits, and anyone with a message to create compelling live events for their audiences and simulcast live to a number of social channels, including YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitch. It allows creators to easily brand their broadcasts with themes, color schemes, overlays, backgrounds, logos, and even GIFs. They can also easily host up to ten live guests to interview at once, show on-screen comments from viewers, and add call-to-action interactions to increase conversions and sales.
Hopin and StreamYard will work together to help event organizers bring StreamYard’s compelling, engaging, and easy-to-use capabilities to their online gatherings. StreamYard will soon replace the Hopin Studio and power all Hopin Stages, with native integration expected in H1 2021. Hopin aims to accelerate StreamYard’s innovative product development, sales and marketing, and grow StreamYard’s enterprise customer base. Vandentop and Briggs will continue to oversee the StreamYard team of 19 employees, while joining Hopin to assist Boufarhat in building out the company’s overall vision as a one-stop-shop for the best video broadcasting services and virtual event experiences.
“Hopin is one of our most astounding growth stories; the team’s Series B in November was a momentous milestone in every respect, including for the fast-changing virtual events industry,” said Sonali De Rycker, partner at Accel. “And they’ve now acquired two companies—first Topi, and now StreamYard. To pull this off in the first year of operation is unprecedented. The combination with StreamYard is incredibly powerful and will further fuel Hopin’s trajectory as it charts the future of online experiences.”
Hopin continues to enjoy rapid growth and soaring demand since its launch in February 2020. It has scaled from 5,000 registered users and 1,800 organizations hosting events on the Hopin platform to more than 5 million users and over 100,000 organizations hosting events. Last year alone, the remote-first company grew from eight employees to nearly 300 across 38 countries. Hopin has raised over $170 million to date, most recently completing a $125 million Series B led by IVP and Tiger Global and joined by Coatue and DFJ Growth, along with Hopin’s returning investors Accel, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures, and Seedcamp.
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