Zoom: May the (Sales) Force Be With You

On Apr 10, 2019

Zoom, one of the world’s leading video conferencing and collaboration tools, is expected to go public by the end of this month. The impending IPO has been a popular topic of conversation in the digital marketplaces for some time now.

After all, Zoom has the potential to carve itself an impressive chunk of the enterprise video market.

That’s no small feat.

According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, the enterprise video space could be worth around $20 billion by 2023.

With growth rates of up to 150%, Zoom has proven that it has what it takes to handle virtually any competition in the growing video conferencing segment. Zoom is also a new entrant to the burgeoning UCaaS market, with Zoom Phone. Perhaps they’re two of the reasons why Salesforce has decided to get in on the ground floor of the company’s growth. On Monday, the world’s leading CRM software company invested an impressive $100 million private placement into Zoom technology.

Salesforce Sets Sights on a Future with Zoom

It’s safe to say that Salesforce has plenty of cash to spend on investment opportunities. The cloud company is worth around $122 billion thanks to its software subscriptions. There are even job roles based on the Salesforce economy today.

Over recent years, Salesforce has made a habit of investing in other pioneering companies that sell software solutions to businesses. Zoom is just the latest company that Salesforce has seen an opportunity with. Some of the other investments that Salesforce has made in recent years include:

$79.1 million in connected planning software company, Anaplan – now worth $41 per share
$79.3 million in cloud communications business, Twilio – now worth $121 a share
$42 million in survey software company, SurveyMonkey

Altogether, the five biggest holdings that Salesforce has right now equate about $441 million. That number is set to jump to $541 million after Zoom successfully completes their IPO.

If Zoom’s value grows as drastically as the earnings of the other organisations that Salesforce has invested in, the CRM company is in for some major rewards. Already, some financial experts predict that Zoom’s valuation could be as high as $8.52 billion when it goes public.

Good Luck, Zoom

If anything, Salesforce’s decision to buy $100 million worth of Zoom shares is a clear sign that Salesforce believes in the power of video conferencing, and the potential of Zoom in particular. As Zoom continues to roll out new and exciting features like integrated phone calls, AI-driven automated platforms, and integrations with Microsoft Teams, its value will continue to grow.

In the last couple of years, Zoom’s customer base has increased dramatically, and now the business hosts over 20 billion annual meeting minutes – that’s an increase from only 6.9 billion in 2016. Rob Scott, UC Today Publisher says:

Zoom has the potential to deliver amazing things to the video market, not to mention the UCaaS market, since its introduction of Zoom Phone, if it continues its phenomenal rate of development. We’re excited to see what will happen next when Zoom makes its official debut on the public market.