Video conferencing platform provider Zoom has made the initial investments out of its $100m Zoom Apps Fund, TechCrunch reported on Monday.
Over a dozen companies reportedly comprise the first batch of investments, which are understood to include project management platform Hive, networking app Warmly and video call-recording app Fathom – all based in the US.
Zoom launched the fund to stimulate growth in its app ecosystem, putting money behind developer partners that may complement the suite of apps Zoom is currently developing.
The fund’s areas of focus include collaboration and productivity, community and charity, gaming and entertainment, and diversity and people.
The exact investment amounts into each company are unknown, but at the time of the vehicle’s launch in April 2021 Zoom had said it would be making initial investments of between $250,000 and $2.5m per company.
Warmly, which provides background information on conference call attendants to facilitate introductions, raised $2.1m of seed funding in a round led by venture capital firm NFX and featuring Y Combinator, Matchstick Ventures, Scribble Ventures, 20VC and private investor Mike Vernal in August 2020.
It secured an additional $2.4m in July 2021 from Maven Ventures and F-Prime Capital, an investment vehicle for financial services group Fidelity, and unnamed others.
In the case of Hive, Zoom’s investment was part of a wider $10m round led by Rembrandt Venture Partners and featuring Tribeca Venture Partners and AngelPad.
Hive had previously raised $10.6m in a November 2019 series A led by Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications conglomerate Comcast, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners and Vocap Investment Partners.
This followed two seed tranches in October 2017 and January 2016 – raising $4m and approximately $1m respectively – from investors including Vocap Investment Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Tribeca Venture Partners.
