CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fuze (formerly ThinkingPhones), the leader in global voice, video, and collaboration, today announced that it has closed $112 million in financing led by Summit Partners. This investment brings the company’s total funding to $200 million. The new capital will be used to expand global operations and to support continued investment in innovation, with a specific focus on simplifying enterprise communications. Summit Partners is joined by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Summit Partners Managing Director Bruce Evans will join the Fuze Board of Directors as part of the investment.
Fuze is a global, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform that empowers productivity and delivers insights across enterprises with mobility-enabled and analytics-driven business communications. In 2015, the company grew revenue by more than 100 percent, adding more than 175 new customers and expanding existing customer relationships. In January 2016, Fuze was positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Visionary in the Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing.
“Fuze’s elegant, enterprise-class solutions are disrupting the traditional communications market with a very clear value proposition: a simplified, cloud-based platform that includes flexible video conferencing, group chat capabilities, and always-on collaboration tools,” said Bruce Evans, a Boston-based Managing Director at Summit Partners. “The market opportunity here is enormous, and we are thrilled to be working together with founders Steve Kokinos and Derek Yoo, the outstanding Fuze management team, and our co-investors.”
In 2015, MarketsandMarkets valued the total UCaaS market at $15.1 billion. By 2022, Transparency Market Research projects the global UCaaS market to grow to more than $37 billion in value. The video conferencing market is expected to reach $6.4 billion by 2020, up from $3.6 billion in 2015, and web conferencing is projected to add an additional $2.9 billion in market opportunity by 2017.
“Enterprises of all sizes are benefiting from new business processes and workflows associated with cloud-based communications platforms. This new investment will enable Fuze to expand geographically and accelerate our innovation to address global demand in the UCaaS, video conferencing, and web collaboration markets,” said Steve Kokinos, CEO & Co-Founder, Fuze . “We view Summit as a long-term strategic partner with deep experience scaling growth stage companies in the enterprise software and communications market. Together with our existing investors TCV, BVP, and G20, Summit’s support will help Fuze realize its vision to be the undisputed leader in this growing market. ”
ThinkingPhones acquired Fuze in November 2015. In February 2016, it announced a new corporate brand platform officially uniting the companies as Fuze. Fuze reimagines and simplifies business communications and collaboration so teams can thrive and move as fast as the world around them.
“This investment is undeniable validation of the market as a whole, and more specifically of Fuze’s vision to reimagine the industry. We anticipate that momentum will continue to accelerate, and Fuze will be well-positioned to capture a significant portion of the addressable UCaaS, video conferencing, and web collaboration market opportunities across the globe,” said Bob Goodman, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners.
“Fuze is a true leader in giving the enterprise an infrastructure to improve workforce productivity, solve today’s connectivity challenges, and create greater accountability,” said Ted Coons, General Partner, Technology Crossover Ventures. “Fuze’s focus on collaboration, speed, and the customer breathes fresh thinking into core business tenets, and we are delighted to help the team scale and expand their footprint.”
Today’s enterprises find themselves in one of the most powerful and innovative times in history. Almost every employee has a supercomputer in his or her pocket, and the social revolution is creating a sea of data unlike anything businesses have ever seen.
“Today is about connecting in ways we never thought possible,” said Kokinos. “It’s about having information from across your organization at your fingertips, sometimes before you even know you need it. This is what Fuze does better than any other company.”
About Fuze
Fuze is a global, cloud-based unified communications platform that empowers productivity and delivers insights across the enterprise by enabling simplified business voice communications, flexible video conferencing, and always-on collaboration. Formerly ThinkingPhones, Fuze allows the modern, mobile workforce to seamlessly communicate anytime, anywhere, across any device. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Fuze has additional locations including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa, London, Amsterdam, Aveiro (Portugal), Paris, Zurich, and Copenhagen. For more information, visit www.fuze.com.
About Summit Partners
Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global growth equity firm that is currently investing more than $6.5 billion into equity and fixed income opportunities. Summit has invested in more than 430 companies in healthcare, life sciences, technology and other growth sectors. These companies have completed more than 135 public offerings, and more than 160 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe, and invests in companies around the world. For more information, visit www.summitpartners.com or follow on Twitter @SummitPartners.
In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 20–22 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JS, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.
