Video conferencing company Zoom and cloud communications firm RingCentral have both backed a $20m series B round for TaskHuman, a US-based digital coaching service. It is another sign of how online telecoms companies, which benefited from the remote working patterns of the pandemic, are now looking to extend the range of services we might access online.
Zoom Ventures and RingCentral Ventures, the corporate venture capital arms of Zoom and RingCentral respectively, have been investing in online services companies over the past few years. They have co-invested in Theta Lake, a cybersecurity software tool that provides compliance, archiving, surveillance and data security for collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex and RingCentral.
Founded in 2017, TaskHuman offers personalised video sessions through video calls, tackling topics ranging from employment guidance to emotional well-being. Directed to large corporations who want to support their employees, TaskHuman’s total aggregate now sits at $35m, which will be used further to promote product development, marketing and sales efforts.
The round was led by venture capital firm Madrona and included Impact Venture Capital, Sure Ventures, USVP, Gaingels, PeopleTech Angels and Propel(x). Angel investors such as Hemant Thapar and Margo Georgiades also contributed.
The series B round comes just seven months after TaskHuman’s $9.5m series A, which RingCentral Ventures also supported. Madrona Venture Group, Impact Venture Capital, Baron Davis, Sanjay Mehrotra, Gopi Kallayil and Somesh Khanna also took part in the round, taking its total funding to $14.3m.
Ravi Swaminathan, co-founder and chief executive of TaskHuman, said: “This round of funding allows us to continue expanding our coaching offerings to support individuals’ personal and professional needs while continuing to bring on a global network of specialists. Employees can then build out their own dream team of personal coaches that are accessible via video call at any time, with just the click of a button.”
