Today marks the launch of Zoom Ventures, a collaboration platform where members receive investment from Zoom to innovate.
The venture capital arm welcomes companies aiming to deliver exceptional CX, alongside those striving to revolutionize the workplace and enhance hybrid workforce collaboration.
In building such an ecosystem, the goal is to advance the global companies aligned to Zoom and team up with exciting disruptors across the CX and UC arenas.
Already, Zoom has a track record of doing precisely that, recently investing in Cresta AI – a real-time intelligence tool that aims to surface conversational customer insights.
Last year, the company also made notable investments in Genesys, Avoma, and Mio.
However, Zoom Ventures indicates that the vendor is kicking things up a notch. As Sanjay Rao, Head of Corporate Development, M&A Strategy and Zoom Ventures, stated:
It’s our goal to drive ecosystem innovation for like-minded organizations through Zoom Ventures.
“Since August 2021, we’ve invested in more than 25 portfolio companies building innovative solutions with Zoom. We’ll continue to explore new investment opportunities in our developer ecosystem to help deliver more innovation for our customers”
Rao also promised that the move will help build trust with partners, who will likely benefit from harnessing the expertise of the Zoom team.
Indeed, Zoom’s goal is to create a “foundation of empowerment”, which brings visions for CX, CCaaS, and UC innovations into reality and to an iron-clad userbase.
Zoom Ventures will include brands currently working with the vendor as part of its Zoom Apps Fund, as a $100 million kitty that supports partners in building apps and integrations with the Zoom Developer Platform.
Such innovations are already coming thick and fast, with Zoom recently launching a CCaaS platform, conversational AI solution, and new conversational AI capabilities.
As it looks to deepen its standing in the enterprise space, Zoom Ventures will only accelerate the development of such solutions further and build on its impressive growth – best highlighted by a recent $2 billion funding round.
