Tough times for virtual and hybrid events specialists Glisser and Hubilo, with 140 jobs set to be lost across both businesses.
UK and US-based Glisser founder Michael Piddock said his company would likely go into administration this week, with a buyer found for the platform, but not for the broader business.
“There will be a time and a place to tell our story, but right now my priority is finding new roles for 25 amazing people,” Piddock posted on his LinkedIn.
Glisser was founded in 2014 and initially targeted mainly smaller events building up over 300 clients in the UK and US.
The company did not seem to attract the levels of investment funding from the venture capital market as some of the really big hitters such as Hopin, despite its product being on the market earlier.
Hubilo, meanwhile, has reportedly laid off over a third of its workforce, with around 115 employees leaving according to senior management.
The new round of redundancies follow on cuts last July at the San Francisco and Bengaluru-based company. Hubilo then laid off 45 of its employees.
Analysing the impact of the pandemic on Hubilo, India’s Economic Times said “the pendulum swung and physical events came back strongly. Organisations preferred to use the same vendors that they used before the pandemic for their physical events.”
The website also quoted co-founder Vaibhav Jain (pictured) as saying: “Event mobile apps are a commodity now allowing very little room for Hubilo to innovate and capture a sizeable market share in physical event space.”
A note to staff from Jain was quoted in part: “With a heavy heart, given the 2022 market conditions, I have come to understand we need to get back to basics and return to efficient business operations.”
Hubilo was founded in 2015 by Vaibhav Jain and Mayank Agarwal who raised over $150m in several funding rounds.
“We have made our best effort to ensure that the impacted employees are supported with generous severance packages as well as outplacement services to give them a smooth transition. Looking forward, Hubilo is now focusing on physical events,” a management statement said, adding “We have very clear goals and a sound strategy in place for 2023.”
