Video conferencing software platform Zoom has agreed to acquire Keybase, the New York-based end-to-end-encrypted messaging and file-sharing platform built on advanced cryptography. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition comes at a time when Zoom has been under increased scrutiny for privacy vulnerabilities on the platform as the pandemic has forced an accelerated digital transformation with companies scrambling to integrate remote work solutions. “We are excited to integrate Keybase’s team into the Zoom family to help us build end-to-end encryption that can reach current Zoom scalability,” said Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom. “This acquisition marks a key step for Zoom as we attempt to accomplish the creation of a truly private video communications platform that can scale to hundreds of millions of participants, while also having the flexibility to support Zoom’s wide variety of uses.”
We are excited to integrate Keybase’s team into the Zoom family to help us build end-to-end encryption that can reach current Zoom scalability.This acquisition marks a key step for Zoom as we attempt to accomplish the creation of a truly private video communications platform that can scale to hundreds of millions of participants, while also having the flexibility to support Zoom’s wide variety of uses – Eric Yuan
Founded in 2014 by Chris Coyne and Maxwell Krohn, Keybase had raised a total of $10.8M in reported equity funding from a single round in 2015. The company’s backers include Andreessen Horowitz and Corazon Capital. The cofounders are successful serial operators and the duo cofounded OkCupid (acquired by Match in 2011 for $50M in cash) and the SparkNotes (acquired by BarnesandNoble for $3.6M in cash in 2001).
Zoom has had a meteoric rise in its stock price since the pandemic hit, with a valuation approaching $50B and gains exceeding 100%. The company trades at a 2051.68 P/E ratio. The full Keybase team is expected to join Zoom.
Initially, our single top priority is helping to make Zoom even more secure. There are no specific plans for the Keybase app yet. Ultimately Keybase’s future is in Zoom’s hands, and we’ll see where that takes us. So, our shortest-term directive is to significantly improve our security effectiveness, by working on a product that’s that much bigger than Keybase. We can’t be more specific than that, because we’re just diving in. – Keybase blog post announcing the acquistion
