Eric Yuan’s video conferencing platform, Zoom Video Communications has unveiled a $100 million fund for developers of collaboration and productivity apps, in an effort to boost its portfolio of features.
In a statement, Zoom said it created a venture fund, which will initially invest between $250,000 and $2.5 million per start-up that builds services integrated into its offering.
The company said it will back developers “with viable products and early market traction that will provide valuable and engaging experiences to our customers”.
CEO Eric Yuan said the company focused on making meetings “productive and fun” and the fund will help users collaborate “even more seamlessly”.
Meanwhile, according to data from Apptopia, Zoom was downloaded 477 million times in 2020, making it the second most downloaded communication app during the year, behind WhatsApp (600 million) and ahead of Facebook Messenger (403 million).
In October 2020, the company created Zoom Apps, covering development of features it stated offered “seamless productivity and engaging experiences”.
