The “Emergence Award” Goes to...Zoom.us!

Each year Emergence Capital gives out an award to a portfolio company called the “Emergence Award.” The Emergence Award is not for a big successful sale or IPO, but for the company that exemplifies values we respect: hard work, smart execution, and customer dedication. The Emergence Award is not about who has become famous already, but who will be famous in the next several years.

This year we want to recognize and congratulate Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom.us. Eric founded Zoom in 2011 with the vision of creating the next generation of video conferencing, designed to “bring happiness” back to users. As one of the founding engineers at WebEx, Eric knew all about the shortcomings of the existing video conferencing solutions, and he set out to fix them by starting Zoom.

Fast forward to 2015, and Eric has made tremendous progress, not just in creating a product that everyone loves to use, but also in building a team that is getting Zoom into the hands (and onto the screens) of millions of users worldwide. We invested in Zoom at the beginning of 2015, and the team’s progress this year has been remarkable. Here are a few highlights from the year:

• Incredible team building, with six fantastic hires on the executive team, including Dave Berman as President, Roy Benhorin as Head of Finance, Sunil Madan as Head of Business Services, Janine Pelosi as Head of Marketing, John Bow as Head of Enterprise, and Dana Mata as Head of Business Development. In addition, Eric recruited Peter Gassner, Founder and CEO of Veeva Systems to join the board of directors.
• Rapid customer expansion, with over 150,000 business customers in December, representing more than double the number at the beginning of 2015. These customers have generated over 4 billion video conferencing minutes this year.
• Extreme customer happiness, with NPS scores of 62 (!), significantly higher than other players in the space, and frankly, much higher than almost any tech company I know.

Perhaps more importantly than these statistics, Zoom.us is truly changing how people work. Any time I mention my involvement with Zoom, I hear stories about how life has changed post-Zoom. I hear about students working collaboratively with classmates and teachers, and I hear about international colleagues feeling connected to U.S. offices. Even at Emergence we are now Zooming more than ever - it’s become part of how we collaborate internally, and with our companies, entrepreneurs and Limited Partners.

Zoom’s success so far is inspiring, but Eric is quick to note that they have so much more building to do.   We know that the combination of Eric’s relentless focus on product experience and the addition of so much executive talent will lead to even more growth in 2016 and beyond. Eric and his team are defining the digital workspaces of the future, a true example of what Emergence calls “Enterprise Next.”

It is an honor to present the Emergence Award for 2015 to Eric and the Zoom team – we can’t wait to continue the journey with this remarkable company.

Santi Subotovsky, Emergence Capital, with Eric Yuan, CEO, Zoom[/caption]