Loom

Loom is a San Francisco-based company that has developed a video-messaging platform of the same name. It was founded in 2015 by Joe Thomas, Shahed Khan, and Vinay Hiremath and later acquired by Atlassian in 2023. The software can be used for team communication between engineers, sales, design, customer support, and leadership.

Loom is a video-messaging platform that is intended to be used for professional purposes to communicate among teammates. The platform can be used through its Chrome extension, desktop app, or mobile app. Loom records the user with the camera associated with the computer or laptop. It can also record the computer screen at the same time to show what the recorder is seeing on the screen. Then, the video can be embedded into a communication channel or business software to be shared with teammates, such as Slack or Asana.

How to use Loom

In August 2023, Loom announced the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI) suite of services and solutions that were a result of a partnership with Google Workspace. There were features added to the platform, such as one to create a transcript of the video using speech-to-text technology, which is available in more than fifty languages. The transcript is arranged into chapters with time stamps so viewers can find specific parts of the video that are about a certain topic.

The AI also automatically generates a title for each video based on the contents of the video and creates a task list of action items for the team members who are mentioned in the video. Loom's AI suite enables users to easily edit their videos as well with a feature that allows them to remove filler words or long silences.

In October 2023, Australia-based work management platform Atlassian announced its plans to acquire Loom for $975 million. Loom was considered a "unicorn" in May 2021 when it had a $1.53 billion valuation. At the time, many companies worldwide were still depending on collaborating remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it unsafe to be in close contact with other people.

It is reported that Atlassian will pay $880 million in cash, and the remainder will be in the form of Atlassian equity rewards. The announcement was only the beginning of the acquisition process, and it is expected that the acquisition will be complete in the third quarter of 2024.

During the pandemic of COVID-19, video conferencing technologies and platforms increased in public use, specifically Loom and Zoom. In response to the surge in need for use, Loom offered longer free trials and reduced subscription fees. The company also made the platform free to educators across almost every educational institution.