Tercera invests in Zennify, a digital consultancy specializing in financial services

We couldn’t be more excited to announce our fourth investment of 2021 — Zennify!

Zennify is a digital consulting firm with a reputation for leading complex IT modernization and transformation projects for banks, wealth management and insurance companies. Founded in 2012, Zennify has grown to become a go-to partner for Salesforce customers in the Financial Services sector, and is one of nCino’s fastest growing implementation partners.

When Salesforce introduced us to co-founders Manvir Sandhu and Nate Mueller in March of this year, it started as a casual conversation. Salesforce Ventures had only recently invested in Zennify, and thought our previous experience with Appirio (Salesforce Ventures’ first investment) might be valuable as they looked to scale the company globally. There was an instant connection with this people-first, culture-forward company.

Over the next few months, we got to know each other and grew more impressed with the culture and business the Zennify team had built, as well as their vision for the future.

The founders were former Salesforce consultants who had met at HP, implementing and managing Salesforce’s biggest implementation at the time. It was there they first saw the power of the Salesforce platform, knowledge they used in Haiti, where they worked with the World Health Organization to build a cloud-based Salesforce IOT solution to protect Haiti’s vaccine supply after its devastating earthquake. Talk about a company rooted in mission!

Those experiences, and the founding team’s conviction that people could solve any major challenge with the right technology, led them to create Zennify to help Salesforce customers modernize for the digital era. The rest is history. With more than 200 employees, Zennify now has more than 620 Salesforce certifications and is recognized by Salesforce as a Financial Services Cloud expert. The company is on track to deliver 50% revenue growth in fiscal year 2022, after recording nearly 30% in 2021, and its nCino practice is taking off.

Zennify’s Market Opportunity

We believe Zennify’s market opportunity is enormous. Salesforce is already the leading customer success platform in the world, with nearly 20% of the CRM application market share worldwide (IDC). That market footprint throws off a lot of services potential, especially as more and more companies use Salesforce as a bigger piece of their digital transformation efforts.

According to IDC, the Salesforce Economy is expected to create $308 billion in new business revenue this year alone. That’s expected to double by 2026 to $726 billion, and financial services is a big piece of this pie. In fact, financial services companies spend more than any other vertical on IT.

We believe Zennify’s expertise in the space, its deep connections with Salesforce, recent industry-focused hires, and expanding nCino practice place it in a great position to capitalize on the opportunity ahead of them.

A Laser-focus on Culture and Diversity

While the market opportunity is impressive, it’s the company’s culture that sealed the deal for us. Many founders will point to their culture as a differentiator, but Zennify truly does put culture first. And given the war for talent that is putting pressure on nearly every services firm, we believe this will set them apart in the coming years. Here are just a few examples of their culture at work:

A dedication to giving back: Zennify has made social good a core part of their business. The company’s Pledge 1% membership, Zenn for Good and ZennEarth initiatives are just the beginning.

Growing talent from within and from underrepresented communities: Zennify has a strong track record of promoting from within, and also partners with organizations like Grow with Google, Code Black Indy, and Salesforce Talent Alliance to create tech job opportunities for underserved communities and to close the STEM representation gap.

A high bar for diversity, equity and inclusion: More than 60% of Directors and above at the company are women, and salary between genders is at parity. To say this is not the norm for the industry is putting it mildly.

Check out our Q&A with Manvir to learn a little more about Zennify’s mission.

Scaling the foundation for the future

When we look at potential investment opportunities, we’re looking for founders and companies that exemplify the characteristics of a third wave cloud consultancy. And Zennify couldn’t be a better fit.

The team is planning to use the funding to double down on these cultural components and cultivating the best talent, and to expand the brand’s reach across North and Latin America. It also has big plans to enhance its data, analytics and integration services; and develop new FinTech solutions via its employee-driven ZennLab incubator.

We’re looking forward to being part of this next phase in Zennify’s journey!

Share this: