ThinkingPhones Changes Name to Fuze

When ThinkingPhones acquired video conferencing vendor Fuze in November of 2015, it was a natural assumption that the Fuze name would go away as the company was absorbed. However, the opposite seems to be the case, as ThinkingPhones changes its name to Fuze.

On February 9, ThinkingPhone executives announced the name change, which they explained helps unify their voice, video, and collaboration service offerings under a single brand and identity. As it's not focused solely on phones, the "Fuze" name describes its platform's fusion of voice, text, data, and video.

Around the same time, the company brought in $112 million in its latest round of financing, led by Summit Partners. As a result, Fuze can invest in product innovation to help simplify business communications, and extend its reach further around the world. This brings the total amount raised by Fuze to $200 million.

After ThinkingPhones first acquired Fuze, it brought cloud-based video conferencing products to its portfolio, along with Fuze's customers and workforce. Additionally, it acquired Whaleback in August 2014, bringing in managed and cloud-based services for midsize companies, followed by Contactive in 2015, providing analytics software to its offerings.

According to Blair Pleasant of UCStrategies and COMMfusion LLC, "ThinkingPhones has been aggressively acquiring companies like Fuze to add more functionality to its UCaaS offering. As phone calls become but one part of the total service offering, it makes sense to focus on the fusion of these various capabilities, and the name Fuze makes perfect sense. Of course, as my company is named COMMfusion, I'm partial to the 'fusion' moniker."

She adds, "The latest round of financing, which is quite significant, will help the company better compete globally. ThinkingPhones' customers tend to be larger organizations, and multinational services are important. The financing can also help ThinkingPhones continue on its acquisition path, perhaps acquiring companies with more advanced contact center or team collaboration capabilities to help fill out its service offerings."

For more information, visit www.fuze.com.