Zenzap Raises $44M for AI-Native Workplace Chat App

Zenzap, a workplace messenger pitching itself as an AI-native alternative to WhatsApp at work, has raised $44 million from Bessemer, Lightspeed and The Garage, TechCrunch reported. Wix president Nir Zohar and former EY GM Yoram Tietz joined as individual backers.

The 50-person company, founded in 2022 and previously bootstrapped, lists FedEx, Dollar General, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Casey's and Regal as clients, along with branches of IHOP and McDonald's. The product bundles group chats, direct messages, task management and calendar features with AI voice chat, search and workflow agents. Paid plans begin at $51 a month for up to 20 users, with credit-based pricing for the AI agents and transcription.

CEO Guy Weiss framed the opening as a compliance gap. "You can't use WhatsApp or iMessage within a workplace with the AI agent on top of it because it doesn't comply with IT. So that's off the table. You can't implement Slack and Microsoft Teams because they were not built for this day-to-day use case for mobile-first that is meant for average users." Bessemer partner Adam Fisher put the pitch in market-share terms: "The only work platform with any allegiance is Slack, and that's almost entirely among the developer community. Zenzap is not focused on developers, but on the other 99% of employees using personal messaging apps."

The round lands alongside a run of other AI deals we've tracked this quarter, and marks a shift for Weiss, who said he was "super afraid to do a second round as a founder and become a failure, because my first round was very successful."