Zoom to open tech center in Bengaluru, hire ‘key talent’

• The Bengaluru tech center will support the San Jose headquartered company’s global engineering efforts
• The company said it will be hiring DevOps engineers, IT, security and business operations headcount in the area

Popular video collaboration platform, Zoom, is opening a new technology center in Bengaluru. The company already has an office in Mumbai and will hire ‘key talent’ over the next few years across the country.

The Bengaluru tech center will support the San Jose headquartered company’s global engineering efforts. The company said it will be hiring DevOps engineers, IT, security and business operations headcount in the area.

Zoom, which saw a 6700% growth in free user sign ups from India between January and April 2020, expects a three-fold expansion in operations at its Mumbai office.

According to LinkedIn listings, Zoom is currently looking for a business development manager in India for its Mumbai office.

“India is a strategically important country for Zoom and we expect to see continued growth and investment here,” said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom. Yuan said the company provided free services to “over 2300 educational institutions” during the covid-19 pandemic.

Sameer Raje, who heads the video-conferencing app’s India operations, said that the number of paid users have quadrupled across the country. Its user base includes customers from manufacturing, education, financial services and other sectors. “We work with IIM, WNX, Tata Technologies, Crisil, ICRA and Religare,” Raje added.

With the entry of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in the video-conferencing space, Zoom will now compete with JioMeet and Airtel BlueJeans.

“Competition makes us think about how to innovate, make our products and services better and provide value to our customer,” said Aparna Bara, chief operating officer of Zoom.