Zenzap Raises $44M for AI Workplace Messaging App

Weiss founded Zenzap in 2022 with co-founders Noam Neumann and Jonatan Bien after meeting Bessemer partner Adam Fisher and discussing different ideas. Before that, he bootstrapped e-commerce marketing platform StuccoMedia in 2012 and sold it to Market Group in 2015, then spent several years as an investor. He initially bootstrapped Zenzap and worked out of Bessemer’s office.

Weiss told TechCrunch he did not want to raise capital. “The only thing I had to lose was my name, and I was super afraid to do a second round as a founder and become a failure, because my first round was very successful. I didn’t need to work for money. So, when I met Adam, I actually started my idea with my own capital,” he said. Fisher later convinced him that Zenzap should be a venture-backed business because it would need capital to scale.

Zenzap aims to serve a wide range of businesses, from hospitality and construction to healthcare and fast food. Weiss said workplaces cannot use WhatsApp or iMessage with an AI agent on top because they do not comply with IT rules. He said Slack and Microsoft Teams were not built for mobile-first, day-to-day use by average users.

The app’s free tier includes group chats, direct messages, task management, calendar integration, schedule management, AI-powered voice chat and search. Paid plans start at $51 per month for up to 20 users and unlock voice and video calls, smart task sorting, task templates, higher file storage limits, AI search across the workspace, and the ability to turn messages into tasks. Zenzap also offers AI agents for workflow automation and AI-aided voice note and call transcriptions, with a credit-based pricing system.

Zenzap lists FedEx, Dollar General, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Casey’s and Regal as clients. Weiss said branches of fast food chains like IHOP and McDonald’s often coordinate shifts and discuss supply on the platform. “Each vertical has its own use case and workflows, which they self-serve with AI, but they all share something in common,” he said.

The startup has 50 staff in the U.S., Tel Aviv and Europe. In the near future, it wants to hire in product and R&D departments.

Bessemer’s Fisher said Zenzap’s focus on catering to a broad range of people could work in its favor. He said Bessemer is using the messenger within its investment team to discuss and manage deal flows, showing it can cater to different kinds of audiences. Fisher also said Slack is the only work platform with any allegiance, and that is almost entirely among the developer community. He said people want a clear separation of work from personal lives, and the adoption of personal and work agents makes that separation imperative now.