Oct 13, 2023

The Cork-based tech firm, which was acquired by Zoom in a €200m deal earlier this year, is starting a beta integration trial with Zoom’s desktop tool Workvivo CEO John Goulding and Zoom founder Eric Yuan Adrian Weckler Today at 12:42 The Cork tech firm Workvivo, which was acquired earlier this year in a €200m deal by the video-calling giant Zoom, has reported a loss before tax for 2022 of €10.8m, more than double the €4.9m loss of the year before. Accounts filed show that the company, co-founded by John Goulding and Joe Lennon and which specialises in employee communications and engagement, also more than doubled its annual recurring revenue (ARR) to over €13m. Key to this was more than 100pc growth in its software subscriptions, to almost €9m. The losses, the company says in the accounts, were “in line with expectations” and “a result of substantial investment in the development of the company's platform and its sales and marketing engines”. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Workvivo CEO John Goulding said that Workvivo, which employs 133 people as a distinct business unit of Zoom, has brought the “momentum” of 2022’s growth into 2023. He said that both he and co-founder Joe Lennon remained committed to leading the company. “Eric [Yuan, Zoom founder and CEO] asked me to continue what we've been doing and they're keeping us as a separate business unit,” he said. “We have our own product roadmap and we're also investing time and energy in integrating with Zoom. The plan is that we continue to offer Workvivo as a standalone product to non-Zoom organisations. The potential market opportunity still seems enormous. We’re signed up.” Workvivo counts Bupa, Morgan McKinley, Telus International and the US retailer, Dollar General, as customers. It has previously revealed that it counts giants such as Amazon, Ryanair, Liberty Mutual and Wynn Resorts as clients. Workvivo’s services are sometimes in competition with Microsoft Viva, Facebook Workspaces, and other employee portal services from tech giants. Its platform service provides access to common workplace tools, including HR, CRM and productivity tools. Workvivo raised €36m in two separate venture capital rounds, in 2020 and 2022. Prior to the Zoom acquisition announcement, its majority investor was Tiger Global. Local Irish VC firm Frontline is a previous investor, as was Zoom founder Eric Yuan and Enterprise Ireland. Mr Goulding said that he and Mr Lennon had not considered being acquired before Mr Yuan approached the company with an “opportunistic” offer. “We were about to close on some significant investment when that happened,” he said. “At the time there had been a lot of layoffs and a lot of uncertainty, but we had continued to have record quarters of performance and lots of growth. So we had investment ready to go. But [Zoom] just felt like a massive opportunity. It didn’t feel anything like a forced combination. And thankfully, that's like what we've seen.” Workvivo’s platform is currently being integrated into Zoom as a desktop feature in beta trials, he said. The accounts show that prior to the Zoom acquisition, Mr Goulding owned 46pc of Workvivo, with Mr Lennon owning 19pc. During 2022, both Mr Goulding and Mr Lennon sold approximately 5pc of their shares. Workvivo’s main office remains in Cork, with other employment ‘hubs’ in Dublin and London.