Today, Zinc announced an $11 million funding round led by a strategic investment from GE Ventures with participation from Hearst Ventures. Existing investors Emergence Capital and CRV also participated in the round. As part of the strategic investment, GE Digital will explore opportunities to collaborate with Zinc to streamline communication for GE's approximately 100,000 deskless workers, including key integrations to complementary products like Predix and ServiceMax. Zinc's mobile communication platform connects deskless workforces with the information, knowledge and leadership that drive business results.
"There's a massive opportunity for companies delivering technology purpose-built for people working away from the teams, systems, and knowledge that can help them do their jobs better," said Lisa Coca, Managing Director of GE Ventures. "Zinc's platform can completely transform how these companies communicate. This strategic investment will help Zinc grow and continue to build essential technology for a market that's hungry for it."
Companies in industries like field service, construction, hospitality, and healthcare trust Zinc's secure communication platform to share the real-time information that's the beating heart of their business. Using Zinc, businesses can instantly communicate important or time-sensitive pieces of information to the entire company, facilitate connections and sharing between employees in the field, and make sure that management has immediate visibility into what's happening on the front lines. Whether it's quickly relaying a new operating procedure to an entire company, enabling knowledge sharing between workers miles apart, or getting product and customer feedback from the field back to managers, Zinc connects employees with the real-time knowledge that drives business results.
"Communication is the lifeblood of an organization. Mobile workers are projected to make up 72% of the U.S. workforce by 2020 -- yet this group is too often left disconnected from their companies," said Zinc CEO Stacey Epstein. "We've seen firsthand, through working with customers like Vivint and BlueLine Rental, how transformational and easy to use Zinc is for both workers and businesses. This new round of funding and strategic partnership with GE and Hearst allow us to continue delivering solutions that empower organizations with information that makes them safer, more connected, and ultimately more effective."
"We focus on industries that have been historically neglected by technology," said Darcy Frisch, Managing Director and Vice President of Hearst Ventures. "Zinc's focus on deskless workforces makes this investment a perfect fit. We're excited to see Zinc grow and keep building technology for companies that truly need it."
About Zinc
Zinc is a San Francisco-based company that believes communication is the essential element every company needs to do its best work. By providing the technology that drives knowledge dissemination in organizations with deskless workers, Zinc's full-featured communications platform illuminates ideas and makes information come to life. Zinc's platform combines secure messaging, broadcasts, voice, video, file & location sharing, and more in an easy to use mobile-first interface. Backed by GE Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners and CRV, Zinc has raised $16 million as part of its mission to inform and empower workers in industries underserved by technology. For more information, visit www.zinc.it and follow @Zinc on Twitter.