Ropea company that provides networking tools for virtual events and remote teams, will soon bring its services to Zoom thanks to the recently closed acquisition of the Y Combinator-backed startup, Glimpse, who had developed a “speech matching” platform designed for virtual events. Glimpse’s idea was to provide a way to facilitate the connections that normally happen at real-world events and bring them online by matching participants in video chats using AI intelligence. Recently, Glimpse was testing a new integration that would allow event hosts to add network speed to their Zoom meetings, webinars and events.
This integration is powered by Zoom’s new “Breakout Room” APIs, which Glimpse and a few others had early access to. While both companies were working in a similar space to connect people remotely, Glimpse’s Zoom integration put them ahead of the curve in terms of product development. Additionally, Twine co-founder and CEO Lawrence Coburn admits that his company even lost some business to Glimpse.
With this acquisition, Glimpse’s technology will become available to Twine’s customer base, including its expansion plans to reach the wider Zoom user base.
In the coming weeks, a small group of apps built using Zoom’s new meeting room APIs will be added to its app store, the Zoom App Marketplace, which today houses dozens of apps designed to work within the Zoom client itself or expand its capabilities in other ways. The upcoming “twine for Zoom” product will be among them, giving customers access to matching tools, networking and virtual watercooler tools that can be used not only for virtual events but also other types of meetings such as company social gatherings, general meetings, onboarding new hires, community gatherings, and more.
“We’ve admired the Glimpse team and products from afar for a long time and are excited to be joining them,” said Coburn. “What they’ve managed to build into the Zoom ecosystem is nothing short of remarkable, with revolutionary impact for remote teams and virtual events.”
Although it is a relatively young company with only a small revenue, Glimpse has grown to 150 customers and had a waiting list of over 700 companies interested in using its platform. These ranged from edtech companies to VCs and even corporate customers. The latter attracted more the yarn, which already had larger companies using its tools, including Amazon, Microsoft and eBay, for example.
“What Glimpse is doing with Breakout Rooms is innovative; that’s exactly why we created the Zoom App Marketplace to begin with,” said Ross Mayfield, Zoom Apps & Integrations product lead, in a statement. “I look forward to seeing the string team bring Zoom string to market,” he added.
Glimpse participated in a startup accelerator Y combiner 2020 winter batch and had seed stage investment from YC and Maven Ventures. Its co-founders, Helena Merk and Brian Li, will remain on retainer to be available to cheer on during the transition. However, its team of three employees is joining cordel, which now has 16 full-time staff. Acquisition terms are not being disclosed as this is a small exit given the initial nature of both companies. However, we understand that this is a stock business in the seven-figure range.