AAA Zoom dashes towards IPO

Zoom dashes towards IPO

Zoom Video Communications, a US-based conferencing software provider backed by mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, is preparing an initial public offering, Reuters reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Morgan Stanley has been appointed to lead the proposed offering, which may occur as early as 2019, though neither Zoom nor Morgan Stanley have officially commented on the report.

The company is targeting a valuation of several billion dollars, up from the $1bn valuation it fetched when it last raised funding in early 2017.

Founded in 2011, Zoom operates a cloud-based audio and video conferencing platform that includes features such as end-to-end encryption, collaboration tools, meeting transcriptions and the ability to run webinars.

Zoom has raised approximately $145m to date. It secured $100m in the 2017 series D round, which was led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and backed by Qualcomm’s corporate venture capital arm, Qualcomm Ventures.

The series D round also attracted Emergence Capital and AME Cloud Ventures, both of which had taken part in Zoom’s $30m series C round in 2015. Emergence Capital led the round, which also featured Qualcomm Ventures, Horizons Ventures and private investors Jerry Yang and Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Qualcomm Ventures first invested in Zoom in 2013 as part of a $6m series A round that included Yang and fellow angel investors Subrah Iyar, Dan Scheinman and Bill Tai.

By Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.

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