Today, video communications company, Zoom, announced that it had established a $100 million fund to invest in start-up software companies that use its technology to develop applications. During the pandemic, companies and schools turned to the Zoom platform. The video conferencing company has become a household name and has huge competitors like Microsoft and Cisco.
Zoom’s chief financial officer, Kelly Steckelberg, said that the company will invest between $250,000 and $2.5 million in special connections. These funds will go to companies that developers “Zoom applications” that can connect to the company’s video conferencing software. The main reason for these applications will be to add new features to Zoom.
Although established companies such as Salesforce have Zoom applications that can display information from the company’s system for discussion in sales meetings, Steckelberg said that Zoom hopes to encourage developers to create new features, such as digital whiteboards that outline ideas. She said the fund will also be open to companies that want to use the Zoom cloud video system, such as telemedicine application providers or conference room hardware manufacturers.
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Steckelberg said that the fund will be reflected in Zoom’s balance sheet, not as an independent venture capital entity, nor will it seek to obtain board seats in the companies it invests in.
“This really helps to invest in developers in the early stages and gain market appeal in the early stages,” she said in an interview. “It will definitely become a strategic investor.”
Zoom Live Transcriptions to soon go free for all users!
Back in February, there were reports that Zoom Live Transcription will soon be free for all users. This feature allows users to see real-time captions during video calls. Unfortunately, the Live Transcription feature currently supports only English language for now. Also, for best results, the speaker has to speak clearly. Presently, users have to fill up a form on Zoom’s website with their information to get Live Transcription. However, we expect that the wider free rollout of this feature will arrive soon.
Specifically, the Zoom ‘Live Transcription’ will arrive at all users in the Fall of 2021. If you can’t wait for the feature to go official for everyone, you can place a request. To do that, you need to head over to the request page and fill in the required details to request the feature.
