(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset management arm is making a $200 million investment in Nextiva, a startup that makes communications software for large businesses.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based business will be valued at $2.7 billion following the financing round, according to a Nextiva spokesperson.
This is the first outside funding for Nextiva, which was previously bootstrapped, meaning it hadn’t taken on institutional investors before.
Nextiva’s communications software helps connect phone systems with business applications. It offers tools for sales departments, contact centers and video meetings. Its clients include Taco Bell and the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League.
Nextiva is part of a broader category of communications-related software for enterprises. The sector includes RingCentral Inc. and Vonage Holdings Corp. Zoom Video Communications Inc. made a foray into the customer service software space earlier this year by agreeing to acquire Five9 Inc. for nearly $15 billion.
The various tools for interaction are getting hard for businesses to manage, Tomas Gorny, Nextiva’s chief executive officer and co-founder said in an interview. “I cannot envision a world five to 10 years from now that people still juggle between all of the applications just so that they can communicate with customers,” he said.
Gorny said that the company would be ready for an initial public offering within about a year, but that it won’t necessarily go public at that time.
Goldman is making a large bet on this company because Nextiva’s software “unlocks the value of interactions and communications throughout an organization in order to power smarter and more automated decision-making,” Goldman Sachs vice president Stephen Kerns said in a statement.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
