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Zoom unveils $100m apps fund

After a blazing year fuelled by the pandemic, breakout conferencing solutions provider announces venture fund to stimulate innovation in the apps ecosystem

Just after it announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of more than five million shares of stock, and that it had racked up a million seat sales of the phone version of its booming video conferencing solution, Zoom Video Communications has launched a $100m venture fund.

The new Zoom Apps Fund has been created to stimulate growth of Zoom’s ecosystem of Zoom Apps, integrations, developer platform and hardware. As part of the launch, portfolio companies will receive initial investments between $250,000 and $2.5m to build solutions that will become core to how Zoom customers meet, communicate and collaborate.

Zoom Apps, first announced at Zoomtopia 2020, are applications that are designed to bring productivity and engaging experiences directly into the Zoom platform.

Zoom added that as many as “dozens” of apps are currently in development and are an important component in building the future of video communications. The Zoom Apps Fund will also invest in developer partners with viable products and early market traction that will provide valuable and engaging experiences to our customers.

“I founded Zoom in 2011, nearly 10 years ago. Without the support of early investors, Zoom would not be what it is today,” said Eric Yuan, CEO and founder of Zoom.

“What I’ve learned over the past year is that we need to keep meetings productive and fun. My hope is that the Zoom Apps Fund will help our customers meet happier and collaborate even more seamlessly, and at the same time help entrepreneurs build new businesses as our platform evolves.”

The news of the new fund comes at the end of a year where it showed extraordinary growth as companies around the world pivoted to remote working due to the pandemic, transitioning to a hybrid model of work.

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At the end of its previous financial year’s fourth quarter ended 31 January, Zoom announced total revenue of $882.5m, up 369% year-on-year; and full fiscal year total revenue of $2.651bn, up 326% year-over-year.

Fourth quarter GAAP income from operations was $256.1m, up 2327% on a yearly basis, and full fiscal year GAAP income from operations was $659.8m, up a staggering 5097% year-over-year. The company had fourth quarter operating cash flow of $399.4m, up 993% year-over-year, and full fiscal year operating cash flow of $1.471bn, representing an annual rise up 869% year-on-year.

The key driver to the remarkable financial growth was a commensurate increase in acquiring new customers and expanding across existing customers.

At the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, Zoom had approximately 467,100 customers with more than 10 employees, up approximately 470% from the same quarter in the 2019/2020 fiscal year, with 1,644 customers contributing more than $100,000 in the previous 12 months, approximately 156% from the same quarter in the previous year. It also had a trailing 12-month net dollar expansion rate in customers, with more than 10 employees above 130% for the 11th consecutive quarter.

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