A pandemic-era unicorn unraveled in just two years. Now, its founder is quietly building a new AI gadget in California. The project is still under wraps, but filings and online clues reveal a bold comeback.
Johnny Boufarhat, the entrepreneur behind the meteoric rise and fall of Hopin, is quietly working on a new artificial intelligence device startup in California. According to corporate filings, GitHub activity, and social media posts reviewed by Forbes, Boufarhat’s latest venture is called Sedona.ai, and it aims to compete in the emerging market for AI-powered consumer gadgets.
Hopin, once valued at $8 billion during the height of the pandemic, became a symbol of the virtual events boom as global lockdowns forced conferences and summits online. The London-based company raised more than $1.1 billion and rapidly expanded, acquiring several businesses and hiring over 1,000 employees. But as in-person events returned, Hopin’s fortunes reversed. In 2023, RingCentral acquired part of the company for $15 million, with a potential $35 million in additional payments tied to growth targets. Boufarhat stepped down as CEO that August. By April 2024, Italian tech firm Bending Spoons purchased Hopin’s remaining assets for $120 million, according to filings from the company’s liquidator.
Despite the dramatic downturn, Boufarhat managed to sell over $195 million of his own shares at Hopin’s peak. Sources told Forbes that around $500 million in unused capital was returned to growth investors, and some early backers and employees benefited from the company’s asset sales.
In May 2025, Boufarhat, now 32, raised $5 million for a new venture registered as Kable LLC, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. Former Hopin employees’ LinkedIn profiles reference work on a creator streaming platform called Kable TV, but the Kable.tv website now redirects to Sedona.ai. A related GitHub repository has also been renamed Sedona, with former Hopin engineering manager Mathieu Cassagnes contributing code. Both Cassagnes and Boufarhat list themselves as working for a stealth startup on LinkedIn.
While AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude have seen rapid adoption, few consumer devices have successfully integrated this technology. San Francisco-based Plaud has found a niche with AI note-taking gadgets, but attempts at always-on AI companions from companies like Humane and Rabbit have struggled. The sector drew renewed attention in May 2025 when OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s startup Io for $6.5 billion. Details remain scarce, but the Wall Street Journal reported the device would be a palm-sized AI “companion” capable of tracking sound and vision. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar recently confirmed she has tested the device, with a public unveiling expected later this year, according to Business Insider.
Boufarhat’s Sedona.ai has yet to be officially announced, but its emergence signals a new chapter for one of the pandemic’s most high-profile founders as he seeks to carve out a place in the competitive AI hardware landscape.
At its peak in 2021, Hopin was valued at $8 billion and had raised over $1.1 billion from investors, including prominent venture capital firms. The company’s workforce exceeded 1,000 employees before its rapid contraction and asset sales in 2023 and 2024.
