500 Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm with $2.4 billion in assets under management. The firm invests in founders who are building fast-growing technology companies. It focuses on markets where technology, innovation, and capital can generate long-term value and economic growth. 500 Global collaborates with key stakeholders and provides advisory services to governments on fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems to support startups. The firm has invested in over 5,000 founders and more than 2,800 companies across 80+ countries. It has funded over 35 companies valued at more than $1 billion and over 160 companies valued at over $100 million, including those that are private, public, or have exited. The team consists of over 190 members based in more than 25 countries, with experience as entrepreneurs, investors, and operators from leading technology companies.

500 Global

Active Capital is a venture firm focused on leading seed rounds to B2B and SaaS companies. The firm is founded and run by former B2B SaaS founders with hands-on experience starting, building, and scaling high-growth businesses in underdog cities across America. They prefer companies that can get to market with very little capital and likes to be a material part of the first million dollars into the business Active Capital is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas by Pat Matthews and Cat Dizon in 2017.

Active Capital

Plug and Play is a seed and early-stage investor focused on great teams leading emerging growth companies.  Plug and Play runs 12 industry-specific accelerator programs twice a year, that acts as a platform for major corporations and high quality startups to connect and collaborate.  Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play participates in Seed, Angel and Series A funding where they often co-invest with their strategic partners. Through years of experience and as part of their network, Plug and Play has put together a world-class network of serial entrepreneurs, strategic investors, and industry leaders who actively assist the firm with its successful and growing investment portfolio.  SEED ROUND. Plug and Play participates in seed round investing through a program called Startup Camp. Startup Camp is a 10-week program based in Silicon Valley for top-notch entrepreneurs to work intensively on building out their business model. Select startups will refine their business models and prototypes with help from a combination of structured workshops, speaker series and mentorship sessions, as well as active coaching from their investment team. At the culmination of Startup Camp, founders will have crystalized their business plans and pitched their company to the venture capital community at EXPO Demo Day.''  ANGEL ROUND Plug and Play makes angel round investments throughout the year, sourced from their monthly Plug and Play Angels (PAPA) sessions. They are partnered with local angel investors in Silicon Valley who participate in PAPA to find the most promising startups and best new technologies.  SERIES A. Series A typical Series A round is in the range of $2 million to $10 million, and is intended to provide operating capital for the company for six months to two years. This round capitalizes the company as it develops its products, performs initial marketing and branding, acquires talent, and conducts other early-stage business operations. It is in this stage that Plug and Play will co-invest with over 180 venture capital partners.  Plug and Play has helped grow market leaders such as PayPal, Danger, Google, DropBox, LendingClub, Zoosk, SoundHound, CreditSesame, Skytree, and has over 400 more early-stage startups in its portfolio.

Plug and Play

500 Fintech

PeakSpan focuses exclusively on growth stage, B2B/enterprise software companies. The firm invests in companies that serve the full spectrum of buyers from small businesses to large enterprises. PeakSpan's research, network development, and learning are focused on the sectors their entrepreneurs live in. As a result, they bring a rich portfolio of assets to the table relevant to all of the companies with whom they partner.

PeakSpan Capital

GTMfund is an early-stage fund focused on investing in hyper-growth B2B SaaS companies. The fund is comprised of 260+ go-to-market executives from the fastest-growing companies on the planet (Snowflake, DocuSign, Okta, Salesforce, Twilio, Square, Procore, etc). Our operators have been there, done that, from zero to IPO. We support our founders with everything GTM - from strategy to hiring and execution.

GTMfund

finally

Finally is a fintech company whose mission is to help small & medium-sized businesses automate their accounting and finance. Finally integrates vital business functions, including bookkeeping, expense management, bill payment, and payroll, into a unified automated solution tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. Businesses spanning various industries depend on Finally to provide enhanced visibility and control over their financial and accounting operations.

<div>Finally (formerly Back Office) is an accounting and finance automation solution for SMEs. The platform features a mobile app purpose-built for accounting, bookkeeping, expense management, payment management, and tax management. As of March 2022, it has served more than 1,000 companies in the US, including Allstate, Mobil, Parkfield, Sylvan Learning, Signal 88 Security, and Ovation. The firm also has a partner referral program where customers receive special pricing and discounts on bookkeeping services as well as managed services for accountants and franchises.</div>

Old CRMs were complicated, expensive, and limited. Simpler, cheaper CRMs targeting SMEs have arrived.

SME CRM

Finally

Finally Raises $50 Million in Series B

<div>
 
 Finally (formerly Back Office) is an accounting and finance automation solution for SMEs. The platform features a mobile app purpose-built for accounting, bookkeeping, expense management, payment management, and tax management. As of March 2022, it has served more than 1,000 companies in the US, including Allstate, Mobil, Parkfield, Sylvan Learning, Signal 88 Security, and Ovation. The firm also has a partner referral program where customers receive special pricing and discounts on bookkeeping services as well as managed services for accountants and franchises.
 
 
 Funding and Financials&nbsp;
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27126">
 February 2024
 </a>
 , the firm raised USD 10 million in venture capital funding led by PeakSpan Capital. The new funding was planned for team expansion, and to create mobile versions of its bookkeeping, expense management and business banking solutions. Prior to that, in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9265">
 March 2022
 </a>
 , the company raised USD 95 million in a Series A funding round, reportedly a mix of debt and equity, and was also led by PeakSpan Capital.&nbsp;
 
 
 Finally also reported that it had witnessed triple-digit growth over the past two years.
 
 
 
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Benchmark Email is a sales and email marketing solutions provider for SMEs. The company also owns two CRM platforms - 1) BenchmarkONE, and 2) Contacts+. BenchmarkONE is an integrated CRM, sales, and marketing automation platform which helps users track, organize, and manage current and prospective customers. It was formed by the September 2019 merger of Benchmark Email and Hatchbuck and, as of September 2020, had 500,000 users worldwide.In February 2020, BenchmarkOne acquired MarketVolt, an email marketing platform, leading to the development of the K12 edition of the platform. This product helps educators, communicators, recruiters, and administrators automate repetitive tasks so they have more time to focus on teaching.Benchmark Email <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/469">acquired Contacts+ </a>, an SME-focused CRM platform that syncs contacts across Apple, Microsoft, and Google Workspace, in February 2021. Subsequently, BenchmarkEmail integrated Contacts+ with its entire suite of products including i BenchmarkONE, to help the company expand its market reach to Android and Apple users and give Benchmark Email access to Contacts+’s customer base of over 20,000.In addition, the firm has expanded its product offerings and automation capabilities by leveraging AI &amp; ML. This includes 1) smart sending AI, a machine learning tool in-built in its email automation solution to increase email deliverability (July 2022); 2) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12027">“Smart Content,</a>” an AI copywriting tool allowing users to use existing content to automatically generate ready-made content for email campaigns at scale (August 2022), and 3) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29885">Smart Design</a>, an AI-driven email creation tool which can generate branded email templates instantly (May 2024).Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32130">July 2024</a>, Benchmark Email, integrated with Canva, to allow users to design emails and images using Canva's AI-powered platform and easily send them through Benchmark's email platform.

Benchmark Email

Insightly is a developer of a cloud-based CRM platform focused on SMEs. Insightly’s CRM platform includes real-time lead routing, email management tools, dashboard to monitor key sales metrics, custom app creation tools, and tools to automate complex multi-step business processes. Insightly’s focus is on improving customer analytics to enhance customer experience (CX) and it does this through multiple integration features, which give users a wide range of flexibility. While its core integration is with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, Insightly can also integrate with 2000+ integrations including Xero, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and Slack.&nbsp;Insightly’s three other products that can be be integrated with its CRM platform are 1) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5611">Insightly Service</a>— a customer service and support ticketing product that helps organizations resolve customer issues, share important customer insights across relevant departments in real-time, 2) Insightly Marketing— a marketing platform which includes tools to map customer journeys, email creation tools, options to capture feedback, and campaign management tools, and 3) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/477">AppConnect</a>— a no-code workflow automation platform which integrates finance, IT, marketing, HR, and other business apps with the Insightly platform. AppConnect provides more than 500 pre-built connectors to apps, including Google Workspace, SAP, PayPal, Shopify, Slack, and Dropbox and automates data transfers eliminating the need for professionals with coding skills and data tools. Insightly also provides a mobile app that includes flexible features for enhanced project management and data security.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32132">July 2024</a>, Insightly merged with Unbounce, a provider of landing page creation and optimization software to enhance its CRM and marketing capabilities. Insightly continued to maintain a standalone identity post merger.Key customers and partnershipsAs of October 2022, Insightly was used by 25,000+ customers including Bloomberg, Sanofi, and Bosch. The firm claimed that manufacturers experienced a 70% lift to ROI and a 58% growth in customer win-rates a a year after using Insightly’s CRM.nsightly also has partnerships with other apps such as Evernote, PandaDoc, Zapier, HubStaff, Proposify, Kixie, and Quotient. In November 2022, Insightly joined <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14991">Intuit’s QuickBooks solutions provider program </a>to integrate its CRM platform with QuickBooks accounting solutions.Funding &amp; financialsThe company’s last funding round was in April 2016, where it raised USD 25 million in a Series C financing round led by Scott Bommer, former founder of SAB Capital. The company was to use the funds to expand its CRM to service larger businesses and to build its direct sales team.

Insightly

Pipedrive is an activity-based CRM platform built around scheduling, tracking, and completing activities. It includes tools built specifically to analyze sales, generate leads, automatically schedule follow-ups, and help close deals efficiently at each stage of growth. The platform also integrates with more than 275 third-party apps and includes some of its internally developed add-ons such as LeadBooster—which is a lead generation tool containing a database of around 400 million lead profiles, 10 million company profiles, and Web Visitors—which helps enterprises analyze customer activity in their websites. In June 2022, the company expanded its suite of products with the addition of <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10898?industryIds=8">campaign management tools, </a>Additionally, in September 2022, the firm announced the beta launch of a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13458?industryIds=8">workflow automation feature </a>under its “Campaigns by Pipedrive” solution. In May 2023, the firm launched a developer hub, a centralized online app development platform to enable its technology partners and developers to build new app integrations for Pipedrive’s marketplace.In .April 2024, it introduced <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28961">Pipedrive AI </a>, a suite of AI tools including an AI-powered sales assistant, AI-generated email writing, AI email summarization, AI smart app recommendations, and an AI-powered Marketplace search.Pipedrive has four standard plans (Essential, Advanced, Professional, and Enterprise), allowing users to subscribe to customizable plans based on individual requirements for specific features. In May 2023, the firm also launched a “Power best value plan” to enable SMEs to meet the specific requirements needed to scale their business operations. As of March 2023, Pipedrive has more than 100,000 SME customers worldwide, with an employee headcount of over 800. Key customers and partnershipsIn August 2023, Pipedrive <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21407">partnered with RapidVerify </a>to integrate the firm's identify verification solution to Pipedrive’s CRM platform. The new integration is expected to provide real-time verification and help mitigate potential risks of fraud.Funding and financialsIn November 2020, Pipedrive received a majority investment from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. While the amount of investment was not disclosed, it has resulted in Pipedrive achieving unicorn status, with an estimated valuation of USD 1.5 billion. The acquisition is expected to boost Pipedrive’s expansion capabilities outside of the US and Europe, the most recent of which was China in mid-2020. Pipedrive would continue to operate as a separate entity from Vista. However, this partnership would help Pipedrive optimize its product portfolio and expand its customer base by continually investing in the company’s go-to-Market engine.

Pipedrive

Streak claims to be the only SME CRM app that integrates entirely within Gmail inboxes. It allows users to simultaneously create emails for mass mail, while maintaining a personal touch. It also has an email tracker and spreadsheet features.

Streak

Formerly known as ProsperWorks, Copper is a CRM platform built with Google Workspace integration, which helps users make notes, follow up, and close sales directly from their Gmail accounts. Copper became the recommended CRM on the Google Workspace Marketplace in 2015 and was named Google’s Partner of the Year in 2016.The company was rebranded Copper after five years of operation in July 2018. Along with the name change, the company simplified its product and enhanced its Google Workspace partnership.Copper claims that its clients on average have experienced a 30% improvement in sales reporting, a 35% decrease in the sales cycle period, and 36% better response time to customers. As of Q3 2018, Forbes noted that Copper was winning over Salesforce customers in the SME market segment, driven by its affordable price and ease of installation.In February 2021, Copper acquired Sherlock, an engagement analytics and scoring platform (deal value undisclosed). Copper plans to integrate Sherlock into its current platform to help customers identify the best times for sales conversion, ensure lasting revenue, and build stronger relationships. The merger is expected to fill the growing demand for CRM systems to provide insights that drive meaningful actions. In addition, the firm has entered into product integrations to extend the use case of its product offerings, culminating in the lauch of its <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13559">integration marketplace </a>in October 2022, providing users with access to 70+ integrations covering a variety of use cases including customer support, meeting scheduling, project management, and website tracking.Key customers and partnershipsAs of August 2022, Copper counted more than 30,000 paid customers in 100+ countries and supported nine languages. Apart from SME users, In 2019, Copper was found to be the number one CRM for small to medium sized advertising agencies, with more than 900 agency customers.Apart from its longstanding partnership with Google, Copper has its own partner program which it revamped alongside its rebranding to include higher margins (up to 30%) for resellers, focusing particularly on top-tier Google Workspace resellers to SMEs.Funding and financialsIn May 2019, the company raised USD 15 million in a Series C funding round, which it plans to use to further expand its market share in Europe, the Middle East, and African regions, where it currently generates around 30% of total revenue.

Copper

This type of CRM can also be known as Strategic CRM as it allows businesses to collect, organize and share valuable customer data among multiple teams across the company, which enables them to work coherently to increase customer lifetime value and thereby profitability. 
The two main aspects of Collaborative CRM are: 1) Interaction management, and 2) Channel management. The former allows businesses to analyze all customer interactions to proactively identify issues and resolve them efficiently. The latter enables businesses to identify and record the communication preferences of customers. This type of CRM is ideal for a business which has multiple departments and stakeholders, offices/branches in various locations and a heavy focus on customer data being transparent and easily accessible by everyone.

This type of CRM collates, stores and analyzes customer data, which includes basic information, marketing data, sales data and customer service records. Using this information, users can get a better idea of customer demand trends and purchase behaviour. Further, companies can track leads and identify which marketing campaigns generate the highest ROI. Sales data helps users identify which products/services are best sellers, seasonal trends, highest revenue generating sales representatives and most profitable locations. Moreover, service data helps businesses assess three main areas: customer service, customer satisfaction and employee performance. This type of CRM is ideal for companies which have sales processes driven by account management and end-users who value metrics and are encouraged by data transparency.

This type of CRM facilitates smooth business operations, by focusing on the automation of three main areas: sales, marketing and after-sales service. It automates the customer record creation process and daily tasks such as scheduling meetings, transitioning leads and generating sales reports. These CRMs also include marketing automation tools for complex email marketing campaigns. Customer service is also automated by the provision of self-service options via phone or laptop. This type of CRM is particularly useful for businesses involving heavy customer interaction.

Certain startups provide industry-specific solutions such as for hair salons and convenience stores

Provides cloud-based platforms and mobile access to CRM systems

<div>
 The company has successfully raised USD 200 million in a Series B funding round. This funding comprises of USD 50 million in equity, managed by PeakSpan Capital, and a credit line of USD 150 million from Encina. The raised capital will be utilised to enhance sales and marketing strategies, introduce new features such as a global hiring module in the hiring product, and elevate the support for payments on the finance side.
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