Zula (app)

Zula, pronounced Zoo-lah (noun), is a mobile application designed to enable work communication on the go. It was founded late 2013 by Jeff Pulver, Co-Founder of Vonage and Angel investor at Twitter and Jacob Ner-David, Co-Founder of Deltathree.

Zula's mission is to help teams communicate effectively,[1] streamlining collaboration and productivity on the go. The work, chats and tasks are done solely via mobile devices, and the web.

Product

Zula offers teams a free communication manager including the ability to share files and rich media, participate in conference calls and group chats, as well as managing common tasks.

Jeff believes that “Business communication has changed, and email, still the principal method of communication in business, hasn’t kept up"[2] thus Zula was planned to remove the Email factor from intensive day-to-day work.

Zula users can import new participants via their LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and Phone contacts - allowing them to collaborate without necessarily knowing each other in person.

The pricing model is freemium, as larger teams of more than 18 mates will need to upgrade for a group chat or recording conference calls. In the future, Zula plans to allow custom Apps to be built upon its platform, allowing companies to have a tailor-made collaboration experience.[3]

Zula was named "WhatsApp For Business",[4]

In Feb 2015, Fast Company listed Zula as one of "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Israel",[5] placing the app in the ninth position.[6]

Funds

Zula has raised $4,000,000, including from Nathan Low, Microsoft Ventures, and Morton Meyerson in a November 2013 $3,000,000 Series A[7] and previously $350,000 via OurCrowd[8][9]

TechCrunch Disrupt

Zula has won the Audience Choice Awards at TechCrunch Disrupt.[10] The final list of nominated startups included 70 companies and Zula was elected to showcase the product.

Company Executives

In January 2015, Raz Yalov was appointed Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds Jacob Ner-David, who founded Zula along with Jeff Pulver, as part of a transition plan to focus heavily on product execution. Yalov is a veteran hi-tech executive and hands-on engineer, with over 20 years of experience in building and launching enterprise software products.[11]

The Chief Marketing Officer is Hillel Fuld, a popular global tech speaker, Tech vlogger, blogger and marketing advisor.

References
  1. Bloomberg TV (January 17, 2014). "Zula Helps Teams Communicate Effectively"
  2. Shamah, David (October 14, 2013). "A WhatsApp For The Business Crowd", TimesOfIsrael.
  3. Etherington, Darrell (September 9, 2013). "Zula Lets You Spend More Time Outside Your Inbox", TechCrunch.
  4. Empson, Rip (July 11, 2013). "Zula, A WhatsApp For Business", TechCrunch.
  5. Fast Company (February 9, 2013). "Inclusion on Most Innovative List"
  6. Zula Press Release (February 9, 2015). "Zula is Honored by Fast Company List", PR Log
  7. Sood, Rahul (November 18, 2013) "Microsoft Ventures Invests in Zula" Archived March 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Microsoft Ventures
  8. Shelach, Shmulik (May 22, 2013) and a "Jeff Pulver Raises $350,000 For Zula via OurCrowd" Archived February 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Globes.
  9. http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zula
  10. Schneider, Avi (September 24, 2013). "Zula Got Picked", GeekTime.
  11. Zula Press Release (January 29, 2015). "Zula Brings in New CEO, Raz Yalov", PRLog
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