Pexip AS Seeks IPO: Norwegian company increasingly rivalling Zoom

As the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world, many businesses are buckling under the strain. However, video conferencing company Pexip AS is looking to raise $200m by going public on the Oslo stock exchange. In the final half of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, IPOs underperformed across Europe. On top of this already undesirable IPO climate, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As such, any ambitions to go public are highly uncertain at present. However, Pexip appears to be one company that could buck this trend and initiate a successful IPO. The company has already secured backing from four investors totaling approximately NOK1.0bn ($113.6m).

As many countries across Europe are on lockdown and engaging in social distancing measures, video conferencing is becoming a key way to communicate for both businesses and individuals. What’s more, it is unlikely that the use of video conferencing will reduce any time soon. It will be quite some time before normal life resumes both in the personal and business sense. A situation that is also likely to emerge is that homeworking will become an increasingly used practice within businesses in the long-term. For a company such as Pexip, the current climate is ideal for IPO.

Pexip’s current success is also being driven by security concerns with the company’s biggest rival, Zoom. While Zoom has also seen growth amidst the COVID-19 crisis, it has been dogged with security issues. Pexip offers a clear advantage over Zoom in respect to privacy concerns and for this reason it attracts high profile clients. The CEO of Pexip, Odd Sverre Ostile, has stated that security and privacy are of increasing concern to clients, particularly in recent times. This is something that Pexip excels in and is the reason the company has attracted so many high profile clients, and is likely to continue to do so as the way in which we work continues to evolve after the pandemic has been overcome.