<div>
  <p>
    An increase in digitalization has led to a shift in sales strategies toward automation and omni channel touch points—boosting demand for sales engagement platforms (SEPs).
  </p>
  <p>
    Email marketing has seen a positive impact with reports of higher year-over-year (YoY) open rates across financial services (+23%), media and publishing (+19%), and healthcare (+12%) sectors during March 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
    Leading disruptors Outreach and SalesLoft have raised large funding rounds at unicorn valuations since the pandemic, reflecting ongoing traction for SEPs despite economic headwinds.
  </p>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>
        <b>SalesLoft: </b>
        Raised USD 100 million at a USD 1.1 billion valuation in January 2021 after doubling revenue since April 2019.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        <b>Outreach</b>
        : Raised USD 50 million at a USD 1.3 billion valuation in June 2020. The company launched its ‘Kaia’ product, a voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge assistant to help salespeople query information in real-time, in May 2015.
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


COVID19-IMPACT

<p>Leading disruptors in the sales engagement platform (SEP) space offer unified solutions for tools and services ranging from personalized content for account based marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) automation, and guided sales tactics for sales representatives.</p><p>The industry is led by a handful of established players working on artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) solutions for customer insights and execution of sales playbooks. Outreach is out in front of a pack of well-funded disruptors with USD 289 million funding raised to date. Other notable disruptors including Xant.ai, Salesloft, and People.ai have also crossed the USD 100 million fundraising mark.</p>

<p>The largest identified disruptor, Outreach, offers lead generation solutions. Other leading disruptors, such as Xant.ai, SalesLoft, and Groove, are more integrated in their offering, following in the footsteps of larger incumbent players that have opted for an end-to-end offering. Players such as VanillaSoft and Revenue Grid have largely bootstrapped operations while expanding their offerings.</p>

<div>
  <p>
    SalesLoft offers customer relationship management (CRM) integration, sales cadence, and sales pipeline management and analytics reporting. It appeals to sales professionals working across the customer lifecycle. The company has offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, London, Indianapolis, New York City, and Guadalajara, Mexico. In August 2021, it announced growth plans in the European market by opening a data center in Germany and doubling headcount in the market.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform serves over 2,000 customers and has established a partner ecosystem of 54 companies as of March 2019. In January 2021, SalesLoft reported that its client profile had shifted from mid-market to large enterprises such as Google, LinkedIn, Cisco, and Dell. It also reported that platform annual recurring revenue (ARR) surpassed USD 100 million in Q2 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    Salesloft strengthened its product offering in 2021, launched its “Deal Engagement Score,” an AI-driven function that can prioritize deals based on more than 30 data elements across its Cadence, Conversations, and Deals product offerings, in March 2021. Furthermore, the company announced Cadence Step Analytics and Pre-Built Cadence Frameworks. Cadence Step Analytics allows the user to gain insights on the most effective approach taken through Cadence. Pre-Built Cadence Frameworks is powered by best practices developed through positive sales interactions and the best-performing sales teams. Also the company hired Ellie Fields as the Chief Product Officer to drive SalesLoft’s product strategy, in March 2021. Fields brings more than 12 years of know-how in collaborations, content experience, business intelligence, and analytics.
  </p>
  <p>
    SalesLoft has been actively engaged in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), acquiring Noteninja (a meeting intelligence startup in May 2018), Costello (a pipeline management provider in November 2019) and InStereo (a sales strategy consultancy firm in July 2021). In September 2018, SalesLoft launched ‘Meeting Intelligence’, which offers artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) meeting analytics leveraging Noteninja’s expertise in meeting intelligence. The acquisition of Costello strengthened SalesLoft’s ability to offer an integrated solution adding pipeline management capabilities to its platform. Using Costello’s software, SalesLoft launched its deal management solution–“SalesLoft Deals”, in February 2020. The acquisition of InStereo established SalesLoft’s focus on buyer engagement in sales and marketing campaigns. InStereo initially partnered with SalesLoft in 2018 and has fulfilled more than 150 customer engagements for companies such as 3M (American multinational conglomerate), Cargill (global food corporation), and Pegasystems (American software company). 
  </p>
  <p>
    In January 2021, SalesLoft raised USD 100 million in a funding round led by Owl Rock Capital with a valuation of USD 1.1 billion. The fresh capital was allocated toward expanding its operations globally while investing in new vertical markets, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven insights, and product innovation, as well as growing its headcount by more than 30% within the next year.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


SalesLoft

<div>
  <p>
    People.ai began as a revenue intelligence platform but has widened its product to cover marketing and sales. It's artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) sales and marketing solutions offer sales playbooks and recommendations, automated customer relationship management (CRM), and pipeline visibility. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Further, the company claims to have around 70 patents combined (secured and in progress) for its AI-based intelligent matching of customer data and profiles. The platform claims its AI system has been trained on 1.1 billion sales activities and over USD 239 billion in closed deals. The company intends to deploy its platform outside of the sales realm and into verticals such as real estate, financial services, and recruitment, which already account for a small share of use cases.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2019,  the company launched “The Wire” which offers a real-time feed of recommended actions based on data collected from sales activity on emails, calendars and CRM systems. The platform is well integrated counting over 90 application programming interface (API) integrations with video conferencing and collaboration tools such as Zoom, GSuite, and Slack. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, the company acquired ClosePlan, a sales intelligence app, to further strengthen its AI sales solution. ClosePlan offers sales playbooks, deal scoring, and account planning solutions.  
  </p>
  <p>
    People.ai raised USD 100 million in a Series D funding round at a post-money valuation of USD 1.1 billion in August 2021. The round was co-led by new investors Akkadian Ventures and Mubadala Capital. The fresh funds are expected to be allocated to product development through investments in its SmartData platform, and to expand into new industry segments and geographies. The company also revealed that its customer base grew 260% over the 12 months preceding the funding, likely leading to its unicorn valuation. 
  </p>
</div>


People.ai

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2014, Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform for customer-facing teams to manage and close deals. It expands on traditional customer relationship management (CRM) and sales software with the use of AI and natural language processing while compiling data from customer interactions on communication channels (e.g., email, calendar meetings) under one platform. The platform uses the data to offer insights into which interactions are more likely to lead to a successful deal. The company caters to several industries including venture capital, private equity, and commercial real estate. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of September 2021, Affinity serves more than 1,700 companies across 70 countries and the platform drives over 500,000 new introductions and tracks 450,000 deals per month. Its clients include Lightspeed, Okta, SoftBank, JLL, and Fidelity.  
  </p>
  <p>
    In September 2021, the company raised USD 80 million in a Series C funding round at a USD 600-million valuation led by Menlo Ventures. The fresh funds were to be funneled into expanding its sales and marketing as well as engineering teams to support customer acquisition efforts and product development, respectively. Moreover, Affinity planned to increase its 120-strong employee base to more than 200 by 2022.
  </p>
</div>


Affinity

<div>
  <p>
    act-on is a marketing automation platform that goes beyond lead generation, catering to the complete customer product lifecycle. Based in Oregon, it is mainly utilized by small and medium-sized businesses, with the highest concentration of large industry users pertaining to the computer software and hospital and healthcare segments.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company operates a subscription model, with paid plans ranging between USD 900 per month to USD 2,000 per month.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, the company raised USD 20 million from existing shareholders U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Norwest Venture Partners, Voyager Capital, founder Raghu Raghavan and new investor, Beedie Capital. The funding was a mix of equity and debt and will be funneled toward platform development. act-on software is used by more than 14,000 companies in the US (62%), followed by the United Kingdom (12%), and Canada (8%). 
  </p>
</div>


act-on

<div>
  <p>
    Brazil-based Zenvia provides an all-inclusive communication platform for enterprise sales teams equipped with solutions for sales campaigns, lead qualification, customer service, and sales enablement. The platform also offers APIs, chatbots, and multi-channel communication, including SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, voice messaging, and webchat. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2020, the company acquired Sirena, a communication startup that provides solutions for sales teams to communicate with customers via a corporate WhatsApp (thereby not using a seller's personal WhatsApp). The “CRM for WhatsApp” platform includes sending notifications, managing service queues, chatbot service, automating interaction, qualifying leads, and customer support services. As of July 2020, Sirena has approximately 700 customers across 30 countries. The acquisition of Sirena paved the way for Zenvia to expand to the entire Latin American market, with offices in the US, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
  </p>
  <p>
    For FY2020, the company reported revenue of USD 94 million, with Brazil accounting for  83% of total revenue, followed by Tonga making up 6%. As of December 2020, the company had more than 9,400 customers across Latin America.
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 150 million through its US listing. Further, the company plans to raise an additional USD 50 million in a private placement to Twilio. The fresh funds will be utilized for two main purposes: 1) approximately USD 57 million to acquire D1 (Direct One), a multichannel communication platform based in Brazil, and 2) for product development, M&As, and to fund the company’s global expansion plans.
  </p>
</div>


Zenvia

<div>
  <p>
    Groove is one of the few sales engagement platforms (SEPs) with a native Salesforce integration. The platform offers multi-channel campaign automation, workflow management, and  communication features. The company was founded by ex-Google employee Chris Rothstein, who led Google Apps account management and deployment during his five-year tenure.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform is built specifically for account executives and provides a very high level of flexibility, security, and compliance across divisions. However, compared to peers, the platform’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) is limited and lacks an extended partnership ecosystem.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of May 2020, the company reported that it is generating USD 10 million in annual recurring revenue. The platform has 70,000 users across 450 customers which include Google, Uber, Atlassian, BBVA, Veola Water, and  Capital One.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Level Equity and Capital One Ventures in May 2020. The funds were allocated to business development efforts and expanding operations.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Groove

<div>
  <p>
    Singaporean-US startup LeadIQ, founded by former Oracle product manager Mei Siauw, offers an account-based prospecting and lead management platform for outbound sales teams. The platform’s core features are sales cadence, an analytics dashboard, and a proprietary algorithm for data verification and enrichment. It also integrates with leading CRM tools such as Salesloft, Outreach, and Salesforce. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Users can subscribe to the platform for a starting price of USD 75 per month (per user).
  </p>
  <p>
    LeadIQ serves enterprise and mid-market clients and has over 20,000 users spanning 45 countries as of October 2021. Its customers include MuleSoft, WalkMe, Okta, Clari, Showpad, Segment, and Sitecore. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In 2020, the company reported its revenue had grown 3x while reporting an eight-digit annual recurring revenue.
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2021, the company raised USD 30 million in a Series B funding round led by Cathay Innovation. It intends to allocate the funds toward hiring management personnel and product development, which includes the addition of features such as account prioritization, buying team and contact personalization, and sales team collaboration.
  </p>
</div>


LeadIQ

<div>
  <p>
    RingDNA offers sales playbooks, multichannel outreach, performance insights, and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations. In addition, the platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transform conversational data between customers and sales reps into actionable insights on sales rep performance which can be used in building buyer profiles. RingDNA’s AI-based guided selling features integrate with its sales playbook to create a list of priority leads and then recommends the best way to reach out to a potential buyer.  
  </p>
  <p>
    RingDNA released its conversation AI solution in November 2019 based on data from more than 130 million sales conversations. This allowed the platform to add sales coaching features to its platform.
  </p>
  <p>
    Guided selling capabilities were introduced in September 2020 and made accessible through its Salesforce CRM integration.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s most recent funding round was an October 2018 Series B for USD 30 million led by Goldman Sachs. The funds were allocated for product development and recruitment. RingDNA’s customers include Hewlett Packard, Amazon Web Services, Autodesk, SAP Concur, Lyft, and Twilio.
  </p>
</div>


RingDNA

<div>
  <p>
    Revenue Grid (formerly known as Invisible.io) rebranded in April 2020 and launched Revenue Engage, Revenue Inbox (initially launched as Smart Cloud Connect in 2015), and Revenue Guide.  Revenue Inbox captures all customer-related data from email communication and automatically transfers it to the customer relationship management (CRM) database. Revenue Engage allows reps to manage leads, conduct outreach through multiple touchpoints, and execute customizable sales sequences using artificial intelligence (AI). Revenue Guide offers pipeline visibility, automated reminders, and recommended actions. The company claims its differentiating factor is its ability to automatically capture data related to deals, prospects, and engagements.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of September 2021, Revenue Grid serves more than 800,000 users across 1,200 brands. In addition, it reaches around 20,000 companies through OEM-white label partnerships with third-party vendors.
  </p>
  <p>
    Revenue Grid raised USD 20 million in a Series A funding round led by W3 Capital with participation from ICU Ventures in September 2021. The fresh funds are earmarked for platform development, including the addition of more AI features, and growing its presence in the Ukraine and US. Moreover, it intends to use the funds to increase its 150 strong employee base to 200 by 2022.
  </p>
</div>


Revenue Grid

<div>
  <p>
    Apollo (formerly known as ZenProspect) is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which offers an end-to-end offering featuring a native lead database with over 200 million contacts from over 25 million companies. The platform offers prospect routing,  leads scoring, multi-channel campaigns, and analytics capabilities. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2018, the company reported a security breach in its prospect database which included contact names, email addresses, company names, and other business contact information. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company was a part of the Y Combinator (YC) Winter 2016 batch. Apollo generated USD 1 million in annual recurring revenue at YC and was profitable immediately. The company raised USD 7 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2018. The funds were allocated to boost hiring.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of March 2021, the platform has more than 5,000 customers including WeWork, Peloton, and Colliers.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Apollo

<div>
  <p>
    Recapped.io offers collaborative action plans for sales teams, internal sales engineers, and customers via a platform that integrates with Salesforce to drive automation, reduce administrative work, and includes features such as reusable templates, and deal engagement scores. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Recapped.io offers two subscription options: An individual license priced at USD 29 per month and a team license starting at USD 39 per month. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of July 2021, Recapped.io reported over 20,000 deals under management along with a team of 11 employees, and customers including Pendo, Clearbit, VTS, Second Nature, LiveIntent, IBM, Skaled, CloserIQ, ComplyAdvantage, and Datasembly. The company also reports that its platform has helped customers to close deals 18% faster with 23% more volume while reducing onboarding time by 28%.  
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 6.3 million in a seed funding round led by Charles River Ventures. The company also announced that its revenue had doubled every quarter since its public launch in the summer of 2020. 
  </p>
</div>


Recapped.io

<div>
  <p>
    VanillaSoft is a sales engagement platform (SEP) that optimizes workflows across the entire sales cycle. It offers lead routing and tracking, email and SMS communication channels, meeting bookings, and customer relationship management (CRM) integration. The company is one of the few identified with a Salesforce native integration. VanillaSoft’s clients are primarily in the insurance, higher education, and tech sectors.
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, the company acquired email outreach platform Autoklose to integrate its email campaign automation and sales cadence capabilities.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 4 million in debt financing in its latest round of funding in May 2019. The capital was allocated to research and development (R&D), sales, and North American expansion.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


VanillaSoft

<div>
  <p>
    Journey Sales is a native, Salesforce-integrated engagement solution. The company’s core product, “Smart Rooms”, substitutes for the sort of omnichannel communication found in standard sales engagement tools. The platform can be used across the entire customer lifecycle.
  </p>
  <p>
    Smart Rooms acts as a digital selling space where sales reps can interact with multiple buyers from one lead account. Smart Rooms facilitate better customer personalization in the form of tailored solutions as the interface is dedicated to a single customer and its associated buyers.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sales reps use the product’s artificial intelligence-driven (AI-driven) content sharing features as the sales sequence moves along to understand which content is most effective. Customer behaviour data from the Smart Room is automatically reflected in Salesforce and used to improve the AI-driven playbooks within Smart Rooms.
  </p>
</div>


Journey Sales

<div>
  <p>
    Reply.io is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which offers tools across multiple stages in the sales process. It allows users to conduct outreach through its email finder which can be used to find business emails on LinkedIn.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform provides multiple channels to directly engage with leads as well as detailed performance reports.  The platform has native integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) providers Salesforce, Pipedrive, Copper, Base, and Close.io 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company targets sales development reps and sales and marketing departments in software, recruitment, and business services verticals. As of November 2020, the platform serves more than 2,500 companies with clients including WeWork, Dribbble, Hubdoc, and Freshworks.
  </p>
</div>


Reply.io

Integrated offering

Companies that operate with an end-to-end solution for sales reps across all sales lifecycle stages including  prospecting, lead conversion, and customer service. 

<div>
  <p>
    SendSquared’s sales platform offers email marketing, SMS, voice, and CRM solutions to resorts and hospitality organizations, enabling interaction with guests in real time. As of August 2021, it served over 100 resorts, hoteliers, and vacation rental management companies.
  </p>
  <p>
    SendSquared raised USD 1 million in a seed funding round led by Cobalt Capital Partners in August 2021. The fresh funds are expected to be allocated toward product development, expanding its sales, marketing, and product development teams, and entering into strategic partnerships. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


SendSquared

<div>
  <p>
    Upscale offers personalized multi-channel outreach capabilities, guided selling, sales performance reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM) automation. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2021, the company raised USD 250,000 in a pre-seed round led by Powerhouse Ventures, Java Capital, and GSF Accelerator. The company intends to use the funds for platform development and market expansion.  
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Upscale

<div>
  <p>
    Chatwoot offers a centralized inbox that allows businesses to connect communications across various channels, including social networks, email, and messaging apps, under one platform. Its features include a live-chat tool, chatbots, and third-party integration with Shopify, Slack, and Stripe. The open source nature of Chatwoot’s platform could be attractive to privacy-conscious businesses since user data remains within its own infrastructure. In addition, Chatwoot claims its differentiating factor is the flexibility it offers to incorporate different data models from industries such as healthcare and insurance. As of August 2021, it served more than 1,000 companies globally. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s monetization model provides businesses the option to retain full data control and self-host or opt for the Chatwoot hosted offering. Both options offer freemium and paid plans starting at USD 19 per user per month. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In August 2021, Chatwoot raised USD 1.6 million in seed funding. The round included participation from Goat Capital, Y Combinator, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Hack VC. The fresh funds are expected to be funneled toward product development.
  </p>
</div>


Chatwoot

<div>
  <p>
    Outreach is a sales engagement platform (SEP) that offers a suite of tools to help sales reps improve communication with prospects and close deals. The platform integrates with existing customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and provides sales sequences, personalization tools, and multi-channel communication capabilities. The company is deeply integrated with third-party apps to attract large enterprise customers and claims to have a network of around 1,000 partners.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform offers insights on the most effective content channels and the optimal times to contact prospects using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology. Further, managers can track sales rep and team-wide performance paving the way for sales coaching using customer interactions. Outreach’s “Amplify AI suite”, launched in 2018, leverages ML to categorize buyer intent based on responses to email communication. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of June 2021, the platform serves more than 4,800 companies, with the majority being mid-market tech companies in North America. The company claims to have posted a run-rate revenue of USD 100 million in 2020. It opened its London office in February 2020 to further establish a presence in the European market, which represents around 5% of its customer base.  As of June 2021, the company has more than 800 employees globally across Seattle, San Francisco, and new global offices in London and Prague. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2020, the company announced the beta launch of “Outreach Kaia”, a voice-based AI sales assistant. Kaia provides a web conferencing integration with call recording, screen sharing, and transcription capabilities. Further, Kaia answers questions raised by prospects in meetings by using flashcards viewable by the sales reps. Kaia collects and summarizes meeting notes and key tasks as well.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2021, the company raised USD 200 million in a Series G funding round, valuing the company at USD 4.4 billion, a significant jump from its USD 1.3 billion valuation from June 2020. The significant jump in valuation may be justified by the company's notable growth over the past 12 months. The company claims its Q1 2021 annual recurring revenue doubled from the previous year. The round was co-led by new investors Premji Invest and Steadfast Capital Ventures. The fresh funding will be allocated toward expanding into new markets, growing its sales and marketing teams, and platform development.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Outreach

<div>
  <p>
    6Sense is a San Francisco-based sales platform that gathers predictive buying patterns using AI, big data, and machine learning tools. The platform uncovers the consumer behavior of individual accounts to break down purchase hesitancy by offering personalized ad campaigns. The company significantly increased its headcount in 2020, primarily in the product development and customer success departments. 6Sense now employs over 300 employees across three continents with plans to increase headcount by another 50% in 2021. In 1H 2021, 6Sense reported a 114% YoY growth in revenue and a 155% YoY growth in its customer base.
  </p>
  <p>
    6Sense has bolstered its in-house capabilities through the acquisition of ZenIQ (an account-based sales and marketing orchestration platform acquired in April 2018) and Fortella (an AI-based B2B revenue intelligence platform acquired in August 2021). ZenIQ enables marketers to intelligently scale account-based information and its integrated workflows coupled with 6Sense predictive data insights are expected to deliver a 5x lift in lead generation, and bolsters the company’s overall product offering. Fortella offers pipeline management that allows sales teams to plan, forecast, and track pipelines based on actual conversion rates, sales cycles, and deal sizes. It offers AI-driven recommendations based on accounts and buyer personalities to minimize these gaps.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, 6Sense raised USD 125 million with a valuation of USD 2.1 billion. The funding round was led by D1 Capital Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Tiger Global, and Insight Partners. The fresh funds were allocated toward product and technology development which includes investments in machine learning and AI-based orchestration capabilities. 
  </p>
</div>


6Sense

<div>
  <p>
    Introhive is a Canadian AI-based sales engagement platform founded by two former BlackBerry employees who previously launched Chalk Media, a content delivery application that was sold to Research in Motion (previous parent company of BackBerry) in 2009.
  </p>
  <p>
    Introhive uses AI to build “relationship graphs” to make better-informed sales decisions. The company pitches its relationship graph as similar to LinkedIn or ZoomInfo for customer mapping. It also uses a proprietary algorithm to automatically update sales and client data.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of June 2021, the company had around 250,000 users across 90 countries including PwC, Colliers International, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (a US-based law firm), Plante Moran (an accounting, tax, and wealth management firm), and Clark Nexsen. Introhive reported doubling its revenue during the last several years as well as during the pandemic.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2021, the company raised CAD 121.3 million (USD 100 million) in a Series C funding round led by new investor PSG and including participation from several existing investors. The company earmarked the funds for new product initiatives, strategic acquisitions, hiring 100 new employees to expand its team by around one third. 
  </p>
</div>


Introhive

<div>
  <p>
    Drift is a revenue acceleration platform that offers solutions for target account management, visitor intelligence, and real-time personalization of buyer experiences. It allows sales and marketing teams to combine their efforts under one platform. For instance, it allows teams to generate pipelines, improve conversion rates, and engage more buyer accounts. As of September 2021, it served over 50,000 customers including Adobe, Snowflake, Okta, and Grubhub who have generated more than USD 5 billion in pipeline value on the platform from January to September 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    Drift received a strategic investment from Vista Equity Partners for a majority stake in the company in September 2021. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2021 but the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Drift intends to use the investment to scale its global operations and accelerate technology and product innovation.
  </p>
</div>


Drift

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2016, Vancouver-based Dooly is an AI-fueled, cloud-based sales platform that gathers client information for sales reps and automates aspects of the sales process by capturing, sharing and gathering data.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company targets startups and boasts a client list that  includes Affirm, Contentful, and Wingman, among others. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Dooly operates a subscription-based business model with a freemium plan for small teams and paid plans starting at USD 25 per user per month.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the platform raised USD 80 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at over USD 300 million. Spark Capital led the round with participation from Greenspring, Tiger Global, Lachy Groom, and boldstart ventures. The fresh capital will be directed toward talent, product development, and extending its product to more departments. Previously, Dooly raised USD 20 million (including USD 3.3 million in seed funding) in a series A funding round in March 2021.    
  </p>
</div>


Dooly

<div>
  <p>
    Indo-US startup MoEngage offers an AI intelligence platform that aims to track and measure customer behavior and assists brands in engaging with customers across email, SMS, on-site, and in-app. The platform’s features include unified customer profiles, personalized product recommendations, analytics, and reporting. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of July 2021, MoEngage had a customer base of over 1,000 global brands including McAfee, Nestle, Domino’s, and Byju’s. MoEngage charges customers on a subscription basis starting at USD 999 per month. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, MoEngage reported that its customer base and recurring revenue doubled in the last 12 months and that business growth in the US and Europe tripled in the first half of 2021 compared with the second half of 2020. The company also stated that it had acquired 250 new customers within a span of 12 months. In March 2021, MoEngage partnered with Merkle Sokrati, an Indian performance marketing agency owned by Dentsu International. The two companies aim to offer combined solutions to customers across the APAC region.
  </p>
  <p>
    Also in July 2021, the company raised USD 32.5 million in a Series C1 funding round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management to develop its AI technology and accelerate its global growth strategy by expanding in the US  with new offices in New York City and Boston as well as the EU, and Asia. 
  </p>
</div>


MoEngage

<div>
  <p>
    Qualified is a conversational sales and marketing platform for sales teams with a native Salesforce integration. The company was founded by former Salesforce CMO Kraig Swensrud and former Salesforce product SVP Sean Whiteley. The platform aims to identify the most valuable buyers visiting a company’s website and alert revenue teams to engage them in conversation via live chat, chatbots, voice calls, and screen sharing. Qualified claims its platform can help achieve a tenfold increase in sales meetings and a sixfold increase in a company’s pipeline.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company offers standard packages priced at USD 1,200 per month or USD 2,000 per month on a subscription basis. Additionally, the company also provides a customized version.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s clients include B2B brands such as Adobe, Bitly, SurveyMonkey, ThoughtSpot, VMware, Matterport, Poly, Sodexo, Talend, and Tech Data.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the company raised USD 51 million in Series B funding led by Salesforce Ventures. The round also included participation from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures. The investment comes less than a year after the company’s previous Series A funding round of USD 12 million (raised in August 2020). The fresh capital will be used to enhance platform functionality and expand the team in key areas, including engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success, with plans to more than double its headcount by the end of 2021. In FY2020, Qualified reported the highest revenue growth in its history, 800% YoY, and recorded a net customer retention rate of 175%.
  </p>
</div>


Qualified

<div>
  <p>
    Airkit enables sales teams to streamline customer-facing experiences via multiple channels, including text, chat, voice, and web. The company was founded by Stephen Ehikiana and Adam Evans, who leveraged their experience from the launch of RelateIQ, a relationship intelligence platform, which was subsequently sold to Salesforce for USD 390 million in 2014.   
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform generates revenue via a subscription license coupled with charges based on usage volume.  
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform is focused on industries such as banking, insurance, travel, and consumer services. It sits on top of existing systems of record (e.g., CRM, ERP), integrating workflows and offering automated onboarding, self-service account updates, digital cross-selling, and churn prevention capabilities. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s customers include Fortune 500 companies and brands such as Principal Financial, Turo, OpenTable, Royal Automotive Club, and SkipTheDishes. Airkit claims digital self-service through its platform is 40x faster for customers. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the company raised USD 40 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures. The company plans to direct the funds to support its go-to-market strategy, product enhancements, and hiring plans, which include doubling its employee base to 200 within the next 12 months. In the same month, the company announced the launch of Kittyhawk, a front-end API-based integration that provides customer onboarding, digital forms, payment capture, WISMO (Where Is My Order), service dispatch, and call deflection functions.  
  </p>
</div>


Airkit

<div>
  <p>
    Vivun offers a software platform known as “Hero,” which allows sales reps to prioritize tasks and manage deals. The platform focuses on presales and using AI techniques to predict the likelihood that a deal will close and provides recommendations on how to close them. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition, it records customer feedback and provides guidance on what products to develop to meet customer requirements. Vivun’s customer base varies from global companies to startups.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the sales platform raised USD 35 million in a Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. The round included participation from current investors Accel and Unusual Ventures, and new investors Salesforce Ventures and Atlassian Ventures.
  </p>
  <p>
    This round follows Vivun’s Series A round of USD 18 million in October 2020 and brings the company's total funding to USD 56 million. The funding proceeds will be allocated toward expanding its product offerings.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company experienced eightfold growth in ARR over FY2020 and tripled its customer base to 45 onboarding clients such as Autodesk, Dell, Cloudera, and Okta.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Vivun

<div>
  <p>
    Chili Piper is a sales engagement platform that helps sales reps schedule appointments with leads. The platform aims to help sales teams increase conversion rates and eliminate manual lead routing. The company states its unique sales proposition is its inbound “Sales Development Representative (SDR)” which can schedule sales demos at the customer's request directly from the user’s website.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company offers a freemium version and a paid version which starts at USD 15 per month. The platform’s clients include Twilio, Salesloft, Spotify, and Gong. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2021, the company closed USD 33 million in series B funding, the round was led by Tiger Global and included existing investors Base10 Partners and Gradient Ventures. Owing to the investment made by Base10, TJ Nahigian, co-founder of Base10 will be joining Chili Piper’s board of directors. The company intends to utilize the fresh funds to expand its research and development team (made up of 49 employees across 45 cities). Further, the company plans to enhance its product potential amidst increasing sales and marketing efforts. 
  </p>
</div>


Chili Piper

<div>
  <p>
    Yesware is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which uses email communication. The software offers prospecting tools such as  follow up templates and the ability to schedule meetings through email. The platform includes a native customer relationship management (CRM) integration with Salesforce. In 2013, the company acquired Attachments.me, an email file-sharing startup.  The acquisition was motivated by its complementary backend email technology which added attachment tracking capabilities to Yesware’s platform. The acquisition effectively led to the establishment of a physical office in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Yesware reported a large customer base at the time.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of November 2020, Yesware served around 800,000 total users across 10,000 companies including Yelp, Financial Times, Zendesk, and Cloudflare. The company reported positive cash flow for the first time in Q2 2018 with 60,000 active users.
  </p>
</div>


Yesware

<div>
  <p>
    Trengo is a multi-channel communication platform for customer-facing teams. It centralizes communication from several major communication platforms including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Google. The platform also integrates with CRM (e.g. Pipedrive, Hubspot) and e-commerce (e.g. WooCommerce, Shopify) platforms. Over the year to August 2021, Trengo tripled its customer base to 2,000 and reported 20,000 users across 60 countries.
  </p>
  <p>
    Trengo raised EUR 30.4 million (USD 36 million) in a Series A funding round co-led by Insight Partners and Peak Capital in August 2021.  The fresh funds are expected to be funneled toward platform development and its global expansion. Trengo also revealed plans to boost hiring, particularly in the engineering department, which will see its employee headcount rise to 200 (from 70–80) by the end of 2022.
  </p>
</div>


Trengo

<div>
  <p>
    DealHub is a sales platform that allows sales teams to execute outreach and improve sales conversion. The platform assists sales teams in managing proposals, price quotes, subscriptions and contracts, and document generation. The platform integrates with CRM tools such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Freshworks. Through its integrations, it dynamically pulls on CRM data to personalize sales proposals for individual customers. DealHub also provides digital deal rooms for each customer interaction to better manage communications and to house all relevant demos, documents, and contracts associated with the respective customer. The platform’s customers include WhiteSource, Allot, Zerto, Gong.io, WalkMe, monday.com, Yotpo, SiSense, DriveNets, Cloudinary, AlgoSec, Logz.io, Hibob, and Optibus.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2020, the company  announced that it raised USD 20 million in a Series B funding round led by Israel Growth Partners, including participation from existing investor Cornerstone Venture Partners.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


DealHub

<div>
  <p>
    Canada-based Salesfloor is a virtual selling platform used by store associates to connect with online shoppers across multiple channels including live chat, video, email, text messaging, and in-person appointments. Retailers, financial institutions, pharmacists, and travel agencies use the platform and its industry-specific modules. As of June 2021, over 50,000 store associates had used Salesfloor to generate sales of over USD 2 billion. The company’s customers include Saks Fifth Avenue, buybuy Baby, Holt Renfrew, Bloomingdale’s, and Shiseido. 
  </p>
  <p>
    For Q1 2021, the company reported doubling revenue and a 67% YoY increase in its customer base, with platform transaction volumes exceeding USD 2 billion for the quarter. Digital clienteling and virtual selling interactions on the platform are up 310% YoY in2021. According to the company, its platform has supported customers in achieving a 10x lift in sales conversion rates, an 18% increase in new customer acquisitions, a 50% increase in average order values, and a 42% reduction in average return rates. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2021, the company raised USD 27 million in Series B funding from Level Equity, a New York-based private investment firm, to 1) develop new platform features; 2) expand to international markets; and 3)grow its team across all departments. 
  </p>
</div>


Salesfloor

<div>
  <p>
    Orum offers an automated live conversation platform that assists sales representatives with prospecting and outreach. The platform also optimizes smart list intelligence, remote call coaching, detailed call analytics, and reporting. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform integrates with existing CRM  platforms and sales engagement platforms including Salesforce, Salesloft and Outreach. Orum is reported to have handled over 100,000 live customer conversations across more than 100 customers as of July 2021. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company is reported to have witnessed a 380% increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) since its seed round in 2020, and expects to reach USD 10 million ARR by the end of 2021, up from USD 4.5 million reported in July 2021. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 25 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, which  valued the company at USD 125 million. The company intends to use the funds for product development, customer service, and expansion into international markets. The company also announced plans to scale its team to over 50 employees (existing 27).
  </p>
</div>


Orum

<div>
  <p>
    Conquer, formerly known as DialSource,  is a customer engagement platform that integrates with leading customer relationship management (CRM) platforms Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company develops, sells, and services CRM technology used by front-end users to create sales cadences. The platform’s technology is designed to gather real-time information on sales prospects to optimize the sales representatives’ chances of prospect scoring and sales outreach. In March 2021, the company redesigned the scope of its CRM tool beyond phone systems to deliver omnichannel communication solutions integrated with email, text, social media, and inbound and outbound sales prospects for sales and service teams. The platform serves more than 25,000 organizations including ADP, Waste Management, Toast, and professional sports teams across the NBA, MLS, MLB, and NFL.
  </p>
</div>


Conquer

<div>
  <p>
    Levitate is an AI-powered sales platform founded by serial entrepreneur Jesse Lipson, who also founded file sharing and cloud storage company ShareFile.
  </p>
  <p>
    Levitate is a SaaS platform that allows users to engage with prospects and clients. It offers personalized email templates to reach prospects and reminders to pursue sales leads. It also integrates with CRM systems to give users the ability to import contacts from existing records. The company claims it saw revenue grow 4x in 2020 and reported a customer base of 2,000 by February 2021. The tool integrates as an email add-on and is also available on Android and iOS starting at USD 199 per month.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company raised USD 8 million in a Series B funding round from existing investors Tippet Venture Partners, Bull City Venture Partners, and founder Lipson. The round followed Levitates’s USD 6 million funding round in July 2020 and brought its total funding to USD 20 million. The fresh capital was to be allocated toward  product development, hiring, and brand awareness.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Levitate

<div>
  <p>
    Zomentum provides a sales platform for managed service providers to bring their entire sales process under one space. The platform provides an end-to-end solution to help customers shorten sales cycles and engage with customers in a more personalized manner using AI and data science. Its largest customer base is in the US (around 80% of total customer base) while it also sees demand for its product in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company raised USD 13 million in a series A funding round from existing investors Elevation Capital, Accel, and Greenoaks Capital. The round also included participation from Eight Roads Ventures. The round follows Zomentum’s USD 4.1 million seed funding in July 2020 and brings total funding to USD 17.1 million. The fresh capital will be allocated toward  geographic expansion and product development. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company experienced 30% month-on-month growth since its last funding round in July 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Zomentum

<div>
  <p>
    Mixmax is an email communication sales engagement platform (SEP). The platform provides email tracking and insights to measure how prospects engage with content. Further, Mixmax brings together email templates, sequences, automated follow-ups, and surveys to increase the quality of interaction between sales reps and prospects. The company was co-founded by Olof Mathé, a product manager and strategist at Skype prior to its acquisition by Microsoft.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform’s combined offering sits on top of existing  customer relationship management (CRM) platforms such as Salesforce and Pipedrive, which can be directly synchronized with the user's inbox. In addition, the platform integrates with LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate leads and contact them directly from Mixmax’s interface.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s initial target market was small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but it has launched new features to take its product upmarket. The product is most suitable for front-facing sales teams in the early stages of the customer lifecycle.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s most recent fundraising of USD 10.4 million in Series A was led by Creandum in 2018. The funds were allocated to support its expansion upmarket and to boost hiring.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Mixmax

<div>
  <p>
    RightBound is an AI-driven outbound sales platform that assists sales representatives with prospects and outreach. The platform optimizes sales playbooks and processes, adjusting sales cadences based on customer profiles. RightBound’s platform integrates with Salesforce, SalesLoft, Outreach.io, and Hubspot. The company claims to achieve a 20%-40% increase in outbound sales and a 100% increase in ROI within three months.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the company raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Innovation Endeavors. The round also included the participation of IBI Tech Fund and Operator Collective. The fresh funds will be directed toward increasing headcount; the company has 20 full-time employees as of May 2021 and plans to double its headcount by 2022 across its offices in the US and Israel. The company stated that its revenue grew by 100% per quarter in 2020.
  </p>
</div>


RightBound

<div>
  <p>
    Vitally, a TechStars company, provides a customer success platform for SaaS sales teams. Vitally’s platform features include automated playbooks, project management, a proprietary health score model, a 360-degree view of customer profiles, NPS surveys, reporting, and analytics. It also offers multiple data source integrations, such as Gmail, Salesforce, Slack, Minpanel, Zendesk, and Hubspot. The company’s customers include Segment, Productboard, Zapier, gorgias, Customer.io and Calendly.
  </p>
  <p>
    Vitally’s Performance package starts at USD 625 per month. It also offers a  package for new businesses starting at USD 299 per month. In July 2021, the company raised USD 9.2 million in a  Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company plans to use the funds for marketing, product development, and recruitment. 
  </p>
</div>


Vitally

<div>
  <p>
    Clientbook is a mobile app-based sales engagement platform for high-ticket retail sales associates. It offers an on-demand, centralized communication channel equipped with Clientbook Engagement features such as automated reminders, workflows, and notes. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The Clientbook platform is commonly used in the sale of luxury goods, jewelry, and fashion. It is used by over 100 companies including Goodman & Sons Jewelers, HEMLINE, and Jeweler's Touch.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform charges custom prices linked to the number of sales associates using Clientbook. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 4.5 million in a funding round led by Aries Capital Partners to expand its team, enter new verticals, and develop its platform. 
  </p>
</div>


Clientbook

<div>
  <p>
    Spotio is a mobile-based sales engagement platform (SEP) for field teams. It is the only company which provides sales engagement tools for field sales teams among the identified disruptors. The platform provides tools for business-to-business (B2B) and residential field sales teams. Spotio also uses a desktop app to connect field sales teams with their sales managers. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of November 2020, the platform serves more than 1,500 companies across the telecommunications, healthcare, and food and beverage sectors. Spotio was listed in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing US private companies, with 263% revenue growth between 2016 and 2019.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised a USD 4.5 million Series A round in January 2020. The funds were allocated to marketing, sales, and product development. 
  </p>
</div>


Spotio

<div>
  <p>
    GrowthGenius is a Canadian AI-powered outbound sales prospecting platform offering lead generation, email verification, and email marketing tools. The platform initially began as a tech-backed sales agency, until it pivoted to a SaaS subscription-based product in June 2020. The platform’s pricing starts at USD 99 per user per month.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of August 2021, GrowthGenius served a customer base of more than 500 companies including marketing agencies, sales agencies, and professional service firms. The company reported that it had seen an annualized revenue growth of almost 200% since the beginning of 2021. The company also reported that it generated over 90,000 sales conversations and more than USD 350 million in pipeline deals in 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
    GrowthGenius raised CAD 2.3 million (USD 1.8 million) in a funding round led by FirePower Capital’s private equity arm in August 2021. The funding was reported to be a mix of debt and equity and was funneled toward product development. As a result of the investment, Anthony Lipchitz (Partner, FirePower Capital) and Sebastien Douville (Partner and COO, FirePower Capital) are expected to join the company’s board. 
  </p>
</div>


GrowthGenius

<div>
  <p>
    Cirrus Insights provides automation for Gmail and Outlook with a native Salesforce integration that provides sales reps with the ability to reach prospects from their inbox and automatic Salesforce synchronization. The platform provides email tracking, templates, scheduling, and personalized email campaign capabilities. Further, the platform records buyer intent using the prospect’s content interaction, and allows sales managers to oversee performance.
  </p>
  <p>
    In 2016, the company entered a strategic partnership with Mast Mobile, a mobile-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform for sales reps. The partnership saw Mast Mobile deploy Cirrus’s email and meeting booking capabilities. Further, the platform added email attachment tracking functionality with its acquisition of Attach.io in 2017.
  </p>
  <p>
    Cirrus received an undisclosed amount in strategic equity investment from Clovis Point Capital in 2018. The company reported USD 12.8 million in revenue in 2018. As of May 2021, the platform has more than 250,000 users from around 5,000 customers.
  </p>
  <p>
    In August 2020, Cirrus merged with one of its competitors, Zynbit, which offers similar solutions targeted toward financial institutions.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Cirrus Insight

<div>
  <p>
    Close (formerly Elastic Sales) offers sales engagement functionality with built-in customer relationship management (CRM), email, phone, and SMS communication as well as automated email sequences, personalization templates, analytics, and pipeline visibility. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company was part of the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2011. The platform targets startups and small and medium businesses (SMBs) companies with clients such as Zapier, Toggl, Customer.io, and Naturebox. The company raised an undisclosed amount led by SV Angel and Spark Capital in 2013.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Close

<div>
  <p>
    Pickle offers an AI-based software platform that translates customer' conversations into data. The platform includes features such as analyzing customer sentiment, extracting customer insights, and a general summary of each individual call. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Pickle’s focuses on firms working in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, customer service, IT, software, and machine learning.
  </p>
  <p>
    Pickle’s pricing starts at USD 80 per month per user. They do not have a free version but provide a free trial for a limited period of time.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, Pickle was accepted into the Y Combinator startup accelerator.
  </p>
  <p>
     
  </p>
</div>


Pickle

<div>
  <p>
    Clodura is an Indian sales engagement platform (SEP) with operations in the US. The platform aims to provide actionable sales intelligence, customer relationship management (CRM) integration, and sales sequences for lead prospecting. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide real-time buying signals and maintains a database of business-to-business leads to help sales representatives find leads faster. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company reported 300% year-over-year (YoY) growth in revenue from 2016 to 2019.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A funding from a group of unidentified investors in March 2020. The funds were earmarked for product development and sales team expansion in North America, Europe, and Australia.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Clodura

<div>
  <p>
    Koncert (formerly ConnectLeader) offers a sales engagement platform (SEP) with predictive intelligence and sales cadence capabilities for lead management. The company holds five patents for its technical inventions including multi-touch cadence capabilities and online call scheduling.
  </p>
  <p>
    Koncert has been bootstrapped since inception. It started as a customer relationship management (CRM) product in 2004, pivoting to agent-assisted call center solutions in 2012. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Koncert launched “Adaptilytics”, its predictive intelligence solution, in 2016, to assist sales reps in prospect scoring and sales outreach. The tool analyzes data points from over five billion interactions—the largest database among  all disruptors identified by SPEEDA. In 2018, Koncert launched “TruCadence” which allows sales reps to engage with prospects via multiple channels, tailoring interaction depending on industry or client specific factors.
  </p>
</div>


Koncert

<div>
  <p>
    Mailshake’s outbound sales engagement platform (SEP) helps sales reps conduct outreach across email, phone, and social media. The platform can be used to send personalized emails at scale, automate email follow-ups, track email campaigns, and record user engagement. Mailshake’s in-built lightweight customer relationship management (CRM) ‘Lead Catcher’, allows sales teams to manage all lead related conversations in one space. In addition, the platform has native CRM integrations with Salesforce and Pipedrive. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company was founded by Managing Partner of Ramp Ventures, Sujan Patel. Ramp Ventures has a portfolio of seven Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies of which Mailshake is considered the most successful. As of September 2021, Mailshake has over 47,000 customers and its revenue was estimated to be in the range of USD 2 million to USD 5 million in 2018. Mailshake is believed to be profitable.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Mailshake

<div>
  <p>
    Saleshandy offers an email communication-dominated sales engagement platform (SEP).  The platform facilitates personalized email outreach campaigns with automated follow-ups, email tracking, and performance analytics. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As of September 2021, the platform serves more than 200,000 businesses including Microsoft, Yelp, Amazon, Logitech, and Oracle.
  </p>
</div>


Saleshandy

<div>
  <p>
    Klentysoft is a sales engagement platform (SEP) centred on email. The platform offers automated sales cadences, personalized emails, and native integrations to customer relationship management (CRM) providers such as Salesforce, Pipedrive, Freshsales, and Hubspot. Sales managers can also use the platform to track performance.
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform automates email follow-ups and uses artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) prompts to inform sales representatives about the optimal time for outreach.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of September 2021, the platform serves over 4,000 customers.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Klentysoft

Lead generation/prospecting

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2007, ZoomInfo (formerly known as DiscoverOrg) is a subscription-based, software as a service (SaaS) company that operates a B2B market intelligence database for sales, marketing, and recruitment. The platform uses automated machine learning to scan company websites, job listings, SEC filings, and news articles. Its data insights are then used by customers for prospecting, demand generation, and recruiting purposes. The platform is used by more than 20,000 enterprises globally. Its data assets consist of over 100 million company profiles and over 4.3 million C-level contacts, with more than 38 million online sources scanned daily. ZoomInfo has offices across the US and Israel.
  </p>
  <p>
    ZoomInfo has been active in the M&A space over 2019–2021. In June 2021, the company acquired Insent.ai, an enterprise sales platform focused on qualifying leads and converting them by tracking visitor data to generate insights. With the acquisition, ZoomInfo launched “ZoomInfo Chat,” powered by Insent’s AI capabilities. This transaction was followed by the acquisition of Chorus.ai, a conversational intelligence company, in July 2021. Previously, ZoomInfo also acquired data intelligence companies Clickagy (October 2020) and EverString Technology (November 2020). In 2019, the company acquired Komiko (CRM startup) in November and NeverBounce (email verification startup) in March.   
  </p>
  <p>
    For FY2020, the company reported an adjusted EPS of USD 0.34 (+409% YoY), on the back of strong revenue growth (+62% YoY to USD 476.2 million), with an annual net revenue retention rate of 108%. Adjusted operating income grew by 35% YoY to USD 226 million. For FY2021, the company raised its initial guidance on the back of a strong quarterly performance in Q2; revenue guidance is now in the USD 703–707 million (previous guidance USD 670–676 million) range, adjusted operating income guidance is USD 291–295 million, and adjusted EPS is projected to reach USD 0.50–0.51.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2020, the company raised USD 935 million in IPO funding with a valuation of USD 8.2 billion.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


ZoomInfo

Companies that focus on the initial sales lifecycle stages of prospecting, lead generation and conversion. 

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2021, Endgame’s platform applies behavioral analytics to identify sales opportunities and reduce enterprise reliance on in-house data scientists and engineers. The platform uses real-time data sources including product engagement, user behavior, transaction history, and sales activity. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Endgame also has a group of design partners including Figma, Loom, Airtable, Clubhouse, Mode, Retool, and Algolia.  As of July 2021, the platform was in beta. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2021, Endgame raised USD 12.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Menlo Ventures for recruitment, R&D, and product enhancements. In January 2021, the company raised USD 5 million in a seed funding round led by Upfront Ventures. Endgame is also backed by Zoom, Airtable, Stripe, and Notion. 
  </p>
</div>


Endgame

<div>
  <p>
    Databook offers an AI-based customer intelligence platform providing sales professionals with access to data-driven insights to accelerate the sales cycle. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Databook focuses on firms working in the fields of enterprise software, information technology, and sales.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2020, Databook announced its USD 5 million seed round led by Josh Stein, Managing partner of Threshold Ventures. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2021, the company raised USD 16 million in series A funding. The funding round was led by Microsoft’s M12 and Salesforce Ventures and included the participation of Threshold Ventures, Haystack, and Firebolt. The fresh funds will be directed towards new product development and to increase the salesforce further to acquire new clients on a global scale.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Databook

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2020, Singapore’s Nektar.ai offers an automated platform that gathers data on customer interactions from emails, calendars, CRM tools, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp for sales teams. The platform features sales playbooks, predictive lead scoring, sales performance metrics, and integrations with tools such as Salesforce, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Zoom, and Slack.   
  </p>
  <p>
    As of July 2021, Nektar.ai was operating in stealth with a product in private beta available to clients in India and the US. The platform is reported to have onboarded more than 200 private beta clients during H1 2021 with a launch in H1 2022. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Also In July 2021, the company raised USD 6 million in an extended seed funding round led by B Capital Group. The round followed its USD 2.1 million seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners in November 2020. The company earmarked the funds for product development, establishing a go-to-market team focused on the US, and recruiting across product and engineering teams. 
  </p>
</div>


Nektar.ai

<div>
  <p>
    Outplay is a sales engagement platform (SEP) with multi-channel touchpoints. The platform provides email templates for sales sequences, email follow-ups and tracking, chat for website visitors, meeting bookings, and performance metrics.  As of March 2021, the platform was serving more than 300 companies.
  </p>
  <p>
    Founded in January 2019 by brothers Ram and Laxman Papineni, who built AppVirality, a referral marketing tool for mobile app developers to grow their user base. The company targets small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and reports to have clients from North America and Europe. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Outplay raised USD 2 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge program for early-stage startups in March 2021 and raised USD 7.3 million in Series A funding again from Sequoia Capital India in July 2021. The company plans to use the fresh funds toward platform development and team expansion. The company also announced that since its seed funding round, Outplay’s revenue has grown 4x while its team has grown 3x to 50 employees. The company is also reported to have acquired customers in more than 50 countries. 
  </p>
</div>


Outplay

<div>
  <p>
    Correlated extracts product usage data into CRM tools, such as Salesforce and Hubspot, to provide sales teams with the insights to carry out timely outreach. Correlated operates a SaaS-based subscription model and currently works with mid-market clients such as Ally, Pulumi, and ReadMe. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Correlated announced its launch out of beta with USD 8.3 million in Seed funding co-led by NextView Ventures and Harrison Metal in August 2021. The round also included the participation of Apollo Projects, and individual investors Brian Long and Andrew Jones (co-founders, Attentive, a marketing company), Ben Darnell (co-founder, Cockroach Labs,  a software company), and Pete Kazanjy (co-founder, Atrium, a sales engagement platform). The company plans to use the funds to hire across engineering and go-to-market teams to support its operations post-beta launch.
  </p>
</div>


Correlated

<div>
  <p>
    Founded by Ross and Ryan Rich, former employees at Google and Stripe, Accord is a B2B sales engagement platform for sales reps and buyers to collaborate on purchasing decisions. The platform integrates with CRM systems, such as Salesforce and Sales Playbook, and functions as a hub for document storage.
  </p>
  <p>
    Accord extended its previously announced USD 6 million Seed funding round by raising an additional USD 1 million in August 2021. The investment comes from a group of CEOs of companies Accord has ties with. The fresh funds are expected to be funneled toward the development and private launch of its B2B platform. Accord also revealed that it doubled its team since February 2021 and it expects to divert part of the new funds to expand its team further.  Moreover, it expects to close a Series A round in the near future.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Accord

<div>
  <p>
    Exceed offers an AI-driven platform that assists in generating  marketing leads and augmented lead qualification. The platform's virtual assistants draw on data from CRM systems and personalize sales interactions. Once the lead is sales-ready, the platform automatically schedules a meeting with a sales representative.
  </p>
  <p>
    Monday.com reported a 35% increase in sales workforce productivity while using Exceed, while  Clearshift noted a 25% increase in lead generation, and DemandBase achieved a 19.5% increase in user engagement per sale. The startup also serves clients such as SugarCRM, CBORD, and Universal Robots. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2020, Exceed raised USD 4 million in seed funding led by Glilot Capital, West Fountain Global Fund, and other angel investors. The fresh capital raised will be used to scale their AI-powered marketing assistant and enter new markets. 
  </p>
</div>


Exceed

<div>
  <p>
    Calixa offers a bottom up sales platform that enables the sales team to segment customers by using prior purchasing and product usage patterns it aggregates through CRMs and other third-party tools. This enables sales teams to take the correct actions when approaching customers to increase user value and adoption.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, Calixa announced its USD 4.25 million seed funding round led by Kleiner Perkins. The round was finalized in February 2020, it is likely that the fresh capital was utilised to build the product while working with 21 beta clients.
  </p>
</div>


Calixa

<div>
  <p>
    German startup bao (be-as-one) offers an automated conversational intelligence platform that generates “next-best actions” for sales agents using real-time analysis of past conversations. In accordance with EU privacy regulations, bao only captures and analyzes data from sales agents, whereas prospects’ data are not recorded. The platform’s features include sales scripts and response recommendations. bao claims that, by using its software, sales teams can increase conversion rates by 20%. 
  </p>
  <p>
    bao raised EUR 2.5 million (approximately USD 3.0 million) in a Seed funding round led by Peak (Amsterdam-based VC investor), with participation from BayBG and a group of angel investors in August 2021. 
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Demoflow offers a collaborative platform for sales teams to increase sales cycles while working remotely. A sales cadence is created for remote selling by streamlining the sales presentation sequence of prep, follow up, and documentation stages across the sales team. The platform offers the ability to take notes, record, assign steps, take screenshots of the live platform and interactive meeting summaries that allow software professionals to showcase their own web based software. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, the company raised an extended  seed round of USD 2.4 million following the  USD 1.6 million it raised in November 2020. The recent funding round was led by RTP Seed, Slack Fund, First Mile Ventures, Next Frontier Capital, and Heroic Ventures.
  </p>
  <p>
    The funds will be  used to develop a central content management system (CMS), a drag and drop interface, customizable pitch decks, automated and customized follow up emails, analytics to shorten the sales cycle and integration with Salesforce, Zoom, G-Suite, Microsoft Outlook, Dropbox, and Box.
  </p>
</div>


Demoflow

<div>
  <p>
    Hub is a platform built to aid pre-sales by interconnecting productivity applications and CRM systems. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Founded in 2020, the customizable platform takes over the process of sales reps entering pre-sales data into a CRM, allowing them more time for sales-driven tasks.  
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, the company launched its platform and announced USD 1 million in seed funding. The company was founded by CEO Freddy Mangum and CTO Karl Gainey and its investors include Salesloft co-founder and CEO Kyle Porter and Tom Noonan, general partner of Atlanta-based TechOperators and former chairman and CEO of Internet Security Systems (acquired by IBM). 
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Lawmatics is a sales engagement platform (SEP) dedicated to law firms to automate customer relationship management (CRM) updates and convert leads. The company was founded by Matt Spiegel whose previous startup, MyCase, a legal practice management software, was sold to AppFolio in 2012.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 2.5 million in seed funding in October 2020 led by Eniac Ventures and Forefront Venture Partners.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Lawmatics

<div>
  <p>
    Botco.ai offers an AI-based sales and marketing automation platform which includes features such as multichannel chat, AI-based guided selling, and conversational templates and analytics. The platform integrates with CRM systems, such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Zoho. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company raised USD 2.2 million in a seed funding round led by Stout Street Capital. The round included participation from Sterling Road, PHX Ventures, and Arizona Tech Investors. The funding proceeds will be allocated toward product development, including integration with electronic health record systems and marketing automation platforms.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Botco.ai

<div>
  <p>
    BuyerAssist’s B2B enterprise sales platform can be used to share contract proposals, pricing, and legal documentation. The company was founded in 2020 by Amit Dugar, Shankar Ganapathy, and Shyam HN (alumni of MindTickle, a platform that helps organizations train sales representatives). 
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2021, the company announced that it raised USD 2 million in a seed funding round co-led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Emergent Ventures, with participation from Better Capital and angel investors. The funding will be funneled toward talent acquisition in the US and India as well as help launch the platform out of beta by the end of 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of June 2021, the company is focused on enterprise software and Saas companies that conduct sales remotely, with plans to enter the manufacturing and financial services sectors going forward.  
  </p>
</div>


BuyerAssist

<div>
  <p>
    ClickDimensions offers marketing technology and services for Microsoft Dynamics 365. The platform has over 5,500 global customers and a partner network spread across over 75 countries.  
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company acquired Eletype, an intelligence platform for monitoring marketing campaigns, for an undisclosed amount. Eletype is a Microsoft Dynamics-native digital assistant for tracking website, search, social, and email marketing campaign effectiveness. The tool delivers its results in the form of smart notifications to Microsoft Teams or via Slack. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Eletype’s capabilities will complement ClickDimensions’ sales engagement functionalities—which include a combination of email marketing, campaign automation, and lead scoring—by offering sales teams additional insights on campaign performance.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


ClickDimensions

<div>
  <p>
    ActiveProspect is a consent-based marketing platform providing lead acquisition, optimization, and distribution solutions. It also provides organizations protection against lawsuits by documenting opt-ins and other forms of consent as well as providing data insights and control. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company announced its acquisition of LeadsBridge, an integration software provider, for an undisclosed amount. LeadsBridge software helps integrate between advertising platforms such as Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn and customers’ CRMs. Altogether, the platform provides over 350 integrations with third-party tools.
  </p>
  <p>
    Following the acquisition, ActiveProspect will have teams in the US and Europe and a product more aligned with its competitors through enhanced integration features. LeadsBridge’s integration services can be amalgamated with ActiveProspect’s capabilities, which will allow ActiveProspect’s customers to add prospect details from social media campaigns directly into their CRMs.
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2020, the company raised an undisclosed amount of funds from Five Elms Capital. The fresh funding will be allocated toward solidifying its market position and platform growth.
  </p>
</div>


ActiveProspect

<div>
  <p>
    Funnelyfly aims to automate the sales process using email and SMS communication. The platform segments prospects into different stages and allows sales reps to both engage and automate interactions using the platform's pre-written communication templates. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform does not have a native salesforce integration like most of the other players but it does maintain and automate customer relationship management (CRM) data in a centralized location.
  </p>
</div>


Funnelfly

<div>
  <p>
    Sealed.ai is an Israeli-based sales engagement platform. Founded in 2017, the company exited stealth in 2020 with a USD 3 million funding round from Mario Nissan (Co-founder of Moonbow Ventures) and other angel investors. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company was founded by Amit Bohensky, who co-founded Zoomd (a marketing technology company) and led it to an IPO on the Canadian stock exchange in September 2019. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform offers detailed analytics focusing on lead generation and conversion. Customer conversations are recorded, transcribed, and saved in real-time, while the platform’s algorithms use natural language processing to accumulate data and update databases on CRM systems such as Salesforce, Hubspot, and Amazon Connect, among others. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Sealed works in 60 languages and reports three US-approved patents, while two more are pending approval. The product is currently in private beta.
  </p>
</div>


Sealed.ai

<div>
  <p>
    FunnelFlare offers multi-channel sales cadence and automatically updates sales rep interactions with prospects on the user’s customer relationship management (CRM). Through FunnelFlare, sales reps can automate email sequences and follow-ups, and add a touch of personalization using the platform’s email templates.
  </p>
</div>


FunnelFlare

Disruptor Funding History

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Artificial intelligence is helping sales teams manage relationships and optimize the customer lifecycle.

Sales Engagement Platforms

<h3>In-house solutions and acquisitions remain common</h3><p>A majority of incumbents in the sales engagement platform (SEP) space are traditional customer relationship management (CRM) providers who have been able to either adopt rudimentary in-house artificial intelligence (AI) solutions or provide standalone sales software through acquiring startups who provide more complex, tech-enabled solutions.</p><p>Most incumbents have focused on creating integrated offerings that provide content management, communication, customer predictive capabilities, and automated data-driven guidance. An analysis of recent acquisitions by industry incumbents further highlights a key trend of moving up the stages of the customer lifecycle. Specifically, large CRM players such as Salesforce and SugarCRM lead in terms of AI-based offerings while facing competition from cloud software providers such as Adobe, SAP, and Oracle, who are also active in the space.</p><p>SugarCRM’s acquisitions have been mainly centered around natural language processing (NLP) and predictive analytics to bolster in-house solutions. It acquired CRM analytics technology provider Corvana in September 2019 ahead of the launch of its platform’s principal AI feature, “Sugar Discover”. Similarly, Adobe acquired the SEP platform Marketo for USD 4.8 billion in 2018 and Workfront for USD 1.5 billion in 2020 to complement its in-house offerings.</p><p>Over the past three years, Zendesk has built out its customer service offering using omnichannel messaging platforms, lead generation tools, and communication and reporting technologies. In March 2020, Salesforce, a leader in CRM, acquired the customer data platform Evergage to bolster its content personalization and account-based marketing solutions. Similarly, Adobe and SAP have made recent acquisitions in the content personalization and campaign management space.</p>

<div>
  <p>
    SugarCRM’s platform covers marketing, sales and customer service by tracking a customer’s entire history with the company, as they go from being a prospect, lead, paying customer and then repeat/loyal customer. As of March 2021, SugarCRM has over 2 million users in more than 120 countries. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company first introduced AI technology to its product offering through the launch of ‘Hint’ in June 2017, a relationship intelligence tool to automatically build and update contact information by collating data from social media, websites and email. The company also offers a variety of products to create campaigns, map customer journeys, and track visitor engagement.
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition to its in-house developments, SugarCRM has deployed an inorganic growth strategy. The company’s acquisitions have been mainly centered around natural language processes (NLP), predictive analytics, personal assistant technology and integrating communication to its platform. This gives SugarCRM a competitive advantage given that they have proactively pivoted to AI-based offerings across the entire customer lifecycle.
  </p>
  <p>
    In 2020, the company acquired Node (a predictive intelligence startup) and W-Systems to bolster its services with add ons (e.g. document management, messaging services) and customer prediction capabilities. SugarCRM acquired Corvana (a CRM analytics technology provider) in September 2019, whose technology it used to launch the platform’s main AI feature ‘Sugar Discover’. It uses machine learning to study customer interaction patterns and suggest next-best actions. Further, in 2019, it strengthened its lead generation and customer analytics offering with the acquisition of Collabspot (email integration software) and Salesfusion (sales automation software for lead nurturing). Other acquisitions include Stitch (2016) and Contastic (2015) which are software used for content personalization by analyzing customer interaction data.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


SugarCRM

<div>
  <p>
    Zendesk is a customer service platform which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to simplify and enhance the efficiency of customer service professionals. The company moved into the AI space via the acquisition of Zopim Technologies (a Singaporean live chat software provider) in 2014, leveraging Zopim’s live and proactive chat capabilities to augment its customer service function.
  </p>
  <p>
    Zendesk has since added multiple features to its AI platform including Zendesk Explore (a customer analytics tool), AI ticketing (the automatic tagging and routing of incoming customer inquiries), and a sentiment analysis tool. Its most recent product is the Zendesk Sales Suite, launched in March 2020, which combines existing features Zendesk Sell, Reach, Voice and Chat into a single product.
  </p>
  <p>
    Zendesk announced the acquisition of customer service automation startup Cleverly at an undisclosed value in August 2021. Zendesk added to its in-house customer service offering and intended to integrate Cleverly’s technology across its existing products. The main areas of focus are expected to be the automation of key insights, reducing manual tasks, and improving workflows. Cleverly’s co-founders Christina Fonseca and Pedro Coelho, along with their team, will be absorbed by Zendesk. Founded in 2019, Cleverly uses machine learning to support the workflow of customer service teams. Cleverly’s technology includes a triage service that automatically classifies and directs customer service requests to the relevant team while its “agent assist” function assists these teams to provide accurate responses to these requests.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s acquisitions strategy over the last 3 years has also helped move Zendesk to the front of the customer lifecycle.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company acquired Smooch Technologies (an omnichannel messaging platform) in 2019 to better integrate communication in its sales platforms. In September 2018, Zendesk acquired Base, an automated sales platform with lead generation, communication and reporting tools. This acquisition allowed Zendesk to attract enterprise clients who prefer  integrated platforms over standalone products. In 2017, Zendesk acquired Outbound.io–a provider of customer engagement software.
  </p>
</div>


Zendesk

<div>
  <p>
    Corel Corporation is a Canadian company providing graphic design, digital printing and video editing software.
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2017, the company acquired the sales engagement platform ClearSlide with over 2,000 customers. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, ClearSlide was an AI-powered sales engagement platform delivering communication tools, engagement analytics, and content management capabilities. The company moved into the AI space in 2015 with the introduction of predictive insights using machine learning algorithms. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Corel Corporation

<div>
  <p>
    With more than 150,000 corporate clients, Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM platforms. The company introduced AI-based tools on its Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform with the launch of  Salesforce Einstein in 2017. Salesforce Einstein offers AI-based tools for customer insights, personalized content selection, and account-based marketing features.
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition to the company’s in-house innovation, Salesforce has made key acquisitions over the last few years to bolster its AI and data driven offerings . In March 2020, the company acquired the customer data platform Evergage to bolster its content personalization and account based marketing solutions. In 2019, the company acquired the conversational intelligence provider Bonobo.ai for USD 45 million and data analytics platform Tableau for USD 15.7 billion. In 2018, Salesforce spent more than USD 800 million to acquire Israel-based AI marketing platform Datorama and interactive email services startup Rebel. In addition, the company issued a grant worth USD 100,000 to lead generation and pipeline management platform Funnel Cakes in 2018.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Salesforce

<div>
  <p>
    Adobe Experience Cloud provides AI-driven marketing solutions by bringing together a comprehensive set of customer experience tools. The Experience Cloud is integrated with Adobe Sensei, the AI tool behind the company’s content creation and personalization solutions. In May 2020, Adobe launched new capabilities on the Experience Cloud platform with the addition of  lead scoring and guided selling capabilities. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition to in-house solutions, Adobe acquired the sales engagement platform Marketo for USD 4.8 billion in 2018 to add its  account-based marketing and lead generation technology to the Experience Cloud. Adobe has also made strategic investments in DemandBase, an AI-based platform for content personalization and tracking digital campaign engagement. Adobe participated in multiple rounds of DemandBase’s funding history with the company leading the startup’s Series B round in 2008. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In November 2020, Adobe acquired the marketing work management platform Workfront for USD 1.5 billion. With over 3,000 customers and 1 million users, Workfront allows teams to collaboratively plan, manage, and track marketing campaigns. The company has raised USD 375 million in funding to date and reported revenue of USD 200 million in 2018. The acquisition strengthens Adobe’s Experience Cloud by offering a product suitable for distributed marketing teams; extending its marketing solutions across the customer lifecycle. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of Adobe’s fiscal year.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Adobe

<div>
  <p>
    SAP offers sales solutions across all stages of the customer lifecycle through its customer experience portfolio which includes the SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Sales Cloud platforms. Together, these platforms offer customer profiling, cross-channel personalized campaigns, analytics, sales automation, and lead and account based management capabilities. Further, the platform uses AI to offer insights on customer behaviour and personalize customer engagement while managing leads.
  </p>
  <p>
    To complement its in-house solutions, SAP has also grown via acquisitions. In 2016, the company acquired Abakus, a marketing attribution company. Founded in 2013, Abakus complemented SAP’s growing marketing cloud platform by allowing users to gain insights into customer interaction across channels and devices to help understand the impact of marketing campaigns. In addition, SAP entered an agreement to acquire Austrian cloud marketing company Emarsys in October 2020. Emarsys is a content personalization platform which offers omnichannel marketing solutions to interact with customers through mobile, email, and social media at scale. Emarsys was founded in 2000 and maintains 13 global offices to serve  1,500 customers. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Oracle offers sales automation solutions through its Oracle Marketing and Sales Cloud - both part of Oracle’s customer experience portfolio. Similar to SAP, Oracle places an emphasis on content personalization and customer insights while addressing needs across the customer lifecycle.
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition to its in-house solutions, Oracle used multiple large acquisitions to support its growth in the sales automation space. Oracle purchased web-based marketing automation platform Eloqua for USD 810 million in December 2012. Eloquoa became the centerpiece of Oracle Marketing Cloud adding B2B capabilities to its platform. Eloqua automated complex sales tasks, enabled cross channel engagement, and offered lead nurturing capabilities. Oracle also paid USD 1.5 billion for Responsys in February 2014, a cross channel marketing platform which added B2C marketing capabilities to Oracle’s platform. The company went on to acquire BlueKai in February 2014, which added content personalization capabilities across online and offline channels to Oracle’s platform by leveraging BlueKai’s customer data management platform which boasted over 700 million profiles at the time. BlueKai was integrated with Eloqua and Responsys to deliver personalized content across B2B and B2C marketing channels.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Oracle

<div>
  <p>
    In December 2020, Cisco acquired IMImobile, a London-based customer interaction platform, in an all-cash USD 730 million deal that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Founded in 2000, IMImobile focuses on Customer Interaction Management (CIM), offering a range of services across omni channel touchpoints including automation and client engagement monitoring. IMImobile’s customers include Best Buy, Hermes, Mercedes, Vodafone, Walgreens, Centrica and Barclays. The company operates across the UK, US, India, Canada, South Africa, and UAE.
  </p>
  <p>
    The acquisition marks a new attempt from Cisco to offer automated sales solutions as it plans to build out a Customer Experience as a Service (CXaaS) platform to provide customer services across a client’s life cycle. The IMImobile team will join Cisco’s Contact Center department.
  </p>
</div>


Cisco Systems

<div>
  <p>
    In October 2020, Accenture agreed to acquire N3, a provider of tech-enabled sales solutions for lead generation and pipeline management. Founded in 2004, Atlanta-based N3 maintains offices in South America, Europe and Asia. N3 had raised a total of USD 35 million at the time of the acquisition.The platform’s clients include Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP.
  </p>
  <p>
    With the acquisition, Accenture can use N3’s AI and machine learning capabilities with its Accenture SynOps business operating platform to better provide companies with insights into automation, analytics and AI strategies.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Accenture

<div>
  <p>
    Wishpond Technologies is a provider of online business solutions focused on marketing. In February 2021, it signed a letter of intent to acquire sales engagement platform PersistIQ for approximately USD 3 million. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The acquisition will complement Wishpond’s expansion into the sales automation and communication domains. This will open the door to cross-selling and new customer segments, with PersistIQ’s clientele, chiefly consisting of small and medium-sized businesses, aligning with Wishpond’s target market.
  </p>
  <p>
    PersistIQ is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which automates outbound sales workflow. The platform facilitates a range of tasks such as sending personalized emails, executing email campaigns, email follow-ups, and bulk emails. Using PersistIQ’s Chrome extension, sales reps gather email addresses from LinkedIn or elsewhere into their sales database and also create personalized email sequences. As of January 2021, PersistIQ reported 780 users, including Gusto, Thumbtack, Clearbit, and Mattermark. In 2020, the company generated revenue of USD 1.1 million with an EBITDA of around 20%. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Wishpond’s USD 3 million purchase consideration will include an initial payment of USD 1 million consisting of a cash consideration, a USD 1 million payment via a share exchange, and a one-year earn out payment payable on a quarterly basis in cash or through the issue of shares. 
  </p>
</div>


Wishpond Technologies

<div>
  <p>
    Indian startup Freshworks (formerly known as Freshdesk) offers customer experience products and services (CX), IT service management (ITSM), customer relationship management (CRM), HR management, sales, and marketing automation solutions. By September 2021, Freshworks had served over 50,000 customers across 120 countries and its clients include Vice Media, Cisco Systems, Klarna, Pearson, and Delivery Hero.
  </p>
  <p>
    Freshworks carried out a series of acquisitions over 2019–2020 to strengthen its product offering. In February 2020, Freshworks acquired AnsweriQ, a provider of intelligent automation for customer service. With the acquisition, Freshworks established a presence in Seattle, expanded its customer base, and boosted the capabilities of its AI engine “Freddy”. This transaction was followed by the acquisition of Singaporean-Indian firm Flint, a cloud management platform, in July 2020, to enhance Freshworks’ ITSM capabilities. In May 2019, the company acquired the customer management platform Natero to utilize Natero’s customer management data and analytics. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Freshworks reported a revenue of USD 169 million for 1H2021 (up 53% YoY), while losses narrowed 83% YoY to USD 8.9 million.  
  </p>
  <p>
    In August 2021, Freshworks filed for a US listing, with plans to use the funds for general corporate purposes (such as working capital and capital expenditures) as well as to finance acquisitions. The company has set an IPO price range of USD 28 to USD 32 per share, which would raise a maximum of USD 912 million at the top end of the range. This implies a  valuation of approximately USD 9 billion. Freshworks was most recently valued at USD 3.5 billion (November 2019). 
  </p>
</div>


Freshworks

<div>
  <p>
    Aurea offers an enterprise software platform which features a suite of tools including process management, messaging, CRM, email marketing, emergency notification, and collaboration software. Aurea refers to itself as the “Netflix of business software,” allowing users unlimited access to its portfolio of products with a single subscription. However, certain enterprise products start at a higher price point. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Aurea has been active in the M&A space with a reported 17 enterprise software business mergers and acquisitions since its inception. In August 2021, the company acquired Xant.ai (formerly InsideSales.com), a sales engagement platform primarily targeting enterprise customers. Founded as InsideSales in 2004, the company rebranded as Xant.ai in November 2019. Following the acquisition, Aurea reinstated Xant.ai to its original name, InsideSales.com. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The platform’s core products are its Revenue Acceleration Cloud and Playbooks. It also features sales cadence, customer relationship management (CRM) automation, buyer scoring, and analytics reporting.
  </p>
  <p>
    The cloud offering includes its “Real Intelligence” platform which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and CRM data from existing software such as Salesforce, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. The platform’s data is compiled from over 50 billion interactions between buyers and sellers. This proves to be the platforms’ differentiator, providing insights on buyer preferences and behaviour on a collective basis to create individual buyer profiles.  As of September 2021, the platform has more than 183 million individual buyer profiles which feed into its Playbooks platform, assisting reps in determining how to engage prospects.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of November 2020, the platform serves more than 2,000 customers which include Verizon, Fidelity Investments, Sage (a UK-based enterprise software company) and Dell EMC (a cloud computing and data storage company), and generated around USD 60 million in revenue in 2019.
  </p>
</div>


Aurea Software

<div>
  <p>
    Canadian Hootsuite, a spinout from Invoke Media, offers a social media management platform for brands and businesses, which facilitates collaboration between social media applications (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube) on a centralized control panel. The company has witnessed a steep rise in social media usage due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 4.2 billion active users spending an average of 145 minutes a day on varied platforms. In view of accelerated social media usage, Hootsuite acquired conversational AI-based platform Heyday.ai for CAD 60 million (USD 48 million) in August 2021. The company plans to integrate Heyday’s AI functionality into its e-commerce and customer service products via social media. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Heyday chatbots integrate all communication sent via Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google’s Business Messages or email and display it in a single dashboard. Once the information is gathered, Heyday utilizes AI to classify it as customer service or sales related, to provide a basic response. In addition, Heyday chatbots can recommend products and provide order updates through its integration with Salesforce, Shopify, Magento, Lightspeed and PrestaShop, routing conversations to a salesperson when necessary.
  </p>
  <p>
    Heyday’s notable clients include French sporting goods company Decathlon, Danish fashion house Bestseller, food and consumer product brand Dannon, and the clothing brands Lacoste, La Maison Simons, and Dynamite Group. As a member of Shopify’s Partner Program, Heyday’s software is used by 70 customers predominantly based in Canada and Europe.
  </p>
</div>


Hootsuite

In-house development

Acquisition

Investment

The Incumbents

Founded in 2014, Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform for customer-facing teams to manage and close deals. It expands on traditional customer relationship management (CRM) and sales software with the use of AI and natural language processing while compiling data from customer interactions on communication channels (e.g., email, calendar meetings) under one platform. The platform uses the data to offer insights into which interactions are more likely to lead to a successful deal. The company caters to several industries including venture capital, private equity, and commercial real estate. 
  
  
    As of September 2021, Affinity serves more than 1,700 companies across 70 countries and the platform drives over 500,000 new introductions and tracks 450,000 deals per month. Its clients include Lightspeed, Okta, SoftBank, JLL, and Fidelity.  
  
  
    In September 2021, the company raised USD 80 million in a Series C funding round at a USD 600-million valuation led by Menlo Ventures. The fresh funds were to be funneled into expanding its sales and marketing as well as engineering teams to support customer acquisition efforts and product development, respectively. Moreover, Affinity planned to increase its 120-strong employee base to more than 200 by 2022.

Groove is one of the few sales engagement platforms (SEPs) with a native Salesforce integration. The platform offers multi-channel campaign automation, workflow management, and  communication features. The company was founded by ex-Google employee Chris Rothstein, who led Google Apps account management and deployment during his five-year tenure.
  
  
    The platform is built specifically for account executives and provides a very high level of flexibility, security, and compliance across divisions. However, compared to peers, the platform’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) is limited and lacks an extended partnership ecosystem.
  
  
    As of May 2020, the company reported that it is generating USD 10 million in annual recurring revenue. The platform has 70,000 users across 450 customers which include Google, Uber, Atlassian, BBVA, Veola Water, and  Capital One.
  
  
    The company raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Level Equity and Capital One Ventures in May 2020. The funds were allocated to business development efforts and expanding operations.

Apollo (formerly known as ZenProspect) is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which offers an end-to-end offering featuring a native lead database with over 200 million contacts from over 25 million companies. The platform offers prospect routing,  leads scoring, multi-channel campaigns, and analytics capabilities. 
  
  
    In October 2018, the company reported a security breach in its prospect database which included contact names, email addresses, company names, and other business contact information. 
  
  
    The company was a part of the Y Combinator (YC) Winter 2016 batch. Apollo generated USD 1 million in annual recurring revenue at YC and was profitable immediately. The company raised USD 7 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2018. The funds were allocated to boost hiring.
  
  
    As of March 2021, the platform has more than 5,000 customers including WeWork, Peloton, and Colliers.

Journey Sales is a native, Salesforce-integrated engagement solution. The company’s core product, “Smart Rooms”, substitutes for the sort of omnichannel communication found in standard sales engagement tools. The platform can be used across the entire customer lifecycle.
  
  
    Smart Rooms acts as a digital selling space where sales reps can interact with multiple buyers from one lead account. Smart Rooms facilitate better customer personalization in the form of tailored solutions as the interface is dedicated to a single customer and its associated buyers.
  
  
    Sales reps use the product’s artificial intelligence-driven (AI-driven) content sharing features as the sales sequence moves along to understand which content is most effective. Customer behaviour data from the Smart Room is automatically reflected in Salesforce and used to improve the AI-driven playbooks within Smart Rooms.

Reply.io is a sales engagement platform (SEP) which offers tools across multiple stages in the sales process. It allows users to conduct outreach through its email finder which can be used to find business emails on LinkedIn.
  
  
    The platform provides multiple channels to directly engage with leads as well as detailed performance reports.  The platform has native integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) providers Salesforce, Pipedrive, Copper, Base, and Close.io 
  
  
    The company targets sales development reps and sales and marketing departments in software, recruitment, and business services verticals. As of November 2020, the platform serves more than 2,500 companies with clients including WeWork, Dribbble, Hubdoc, and Freshworks.

SalesLoft offers customer relationship management (CRM) integration, sales cadence, and sales pipeline management and analytics reporting. It appeals to sales professionals working across the customer lifecycle. The company has offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, London, Indianapolis, New York City, and Guadalajara, Mexico. In August 2021, it announced growth plans in the European market by opening a data center in Germany and doubling headcount in the market.
  
  
    The platform serves over 2,000 customers and has established a partner ecosystem of 54 companies as of March 2019. In January 2021, SalesLoft reported that its client profile had shifted from mid-market to large enterprises such as Google, LinkedIn, Cisco, and Dell. It also reported that platform annual recurring revenue (ARR) surpassed USD 100 million in Q2 2021.
  
  
    Salesloft strengthened its product offering in 2021, launched its “Deal Engagement Score,” an AI-driven function that can prioritize deals based on more than 30 data elements across its Cadence, Conversations, and Deals product offerings, in March 2021. Furthermore, the company announced Cadence Step Analytics and Pre-Built Cadence Frameworks. Cadence Step Analytics allows the user to gain insights on the most effective approach taken through Cadence. Pre-Built Cadence Frameworks is powered by best practices developed through positive sales interactions and the best-performing sales teams. Also the company hired Ellie Fields as the Chief Product Officer to drive SalesLoft’s product strategy, in March 2021. Fields brings more than 12 years of know-how in collaborations, content experience, business intelligence, and analytics.
  
  
    SalesLoft has been actively engaged in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), acquiring Noteninja (a meeting intelligence startup in May 2018), Costello (a pipeline management provider in November 2019) and InStereo (a sales strategy consultancy firm in July 2021). In September 2018, SalesLoft launched ‘Meeting Intelligence’, which offers artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) meeting analytics leveraging Noteninja’s expertise in meeting intelligence. The acquisition of Costello strengthened SalesLoft’s ability to offer an integrated solution adding pipeline management capabilities to its platform. Using Costello’s software, SalesLoft launched its deal management solution–“SalesLoft Deals”, in February 2020. The acquisition of InStereo established SalesLoft’s focus on buyer engagement in sales and marketing campaigns. InStereo initially partnered with SalesLoft in 2018 and has fulfilled more than 150 customer engagements for companies such as 3M (American multinational conglomerate), Cargill (global food corporation), and Pegasystems (American software company). 
  
  
    In January 2021, SalesLoft raised USD 100 million in a funding round led by Owl Rock Capital with a valuation of USD 1.1 billion. The fresh capital was allocated toward expanding its operations globally while investing in new vertical markets, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven insights, and product innovation, as well as growing its headcount by more than 30% within the next year.

People.ai began as a revenue intelligence platform but has widened its product to cover marketing and sales. It's artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) sales and marketing solutions offer sales playbooks and recommendations, automated customer relationship management (CRM), and pipeline visibility. 
  
  
    Further, the company claims to have around 70 patents combined (secured and in progress) for its AI-based intelligent matching of customer data and profiles. The platform claims its AI system has been trained on 1.1 billion sales activities and over USD 239 billion in closed deals. The company intends to deploy its platform outside of the sales realm and into verticals such as real estate, financial services, and recruitment, which already account for a small share of use cases.
  
  
    In May 2019,  the company launched “The Wire” which offers a real-time feed of recommended actions based on data collected from sales activity on emails, calendars and CRM systems. The platform is well integrated counting over 90 application programming interface (API) integrations with video conferencing and collaboration tools such as Zoom, GSuite, and Slack. 
  
  
    In October 2020, the company acquired ClosePlan, a sales intelligence app, to further strengthen its AI sales solution. ClosePlan offers sales playbooks, deal scoring, and account planning solutions.  
  
  
    People.ai raised USD 100 million in a Series D funding round at a post-money valuation of USD 1.1 billion in August 2021. The round was co-led by new investors Akkadian Ventures and Mubadala Capital. The fresh funds are expected to be allocated to product development through investments in its SmartData platform, and to expand into new industry segments and geographies. The company also revealed that its customer base grew 260% over the 12 months preceding the funding, likely leading to its unicorn valuation.

act-on is a marketing automation platform that goes beyond lead generation, catering to the complete customer product lifecycle. Based in Oregon, it is mainly utilized by small and medium-sized businesses, with the highest concentration of large industry users pertaining to the computer software and hospital and healthcare segments.
  
  
    The company operates a subscription model, with paid plans ranging between USD 900 per month to USD 2,000 per month.
  
  
    In March 2021, the company raised USD 20 million from existing shareholders U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Norwest Venture Partners, Voyager Capital, founder Raghu Raghavan and new investor, Beedie Capital. The funding was a mix of equity and debt and will be funneled toward platform development. act-on software is used by more than 14,000 companies in the US (62%), followed by the United Kingdom (12%), and Canada (8%).

Brazil-based Zenvia provides an all-inclusive communication platform for enterprise sales teams equipped with solutions for sales campaigns, lead qualification, customer service, and sales enablement. The platform also offers APIs, chatbots, and multi-channel communication, including SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, voice messaging, and webchat. 
  
  
    In July 2020, the company acquired Sirena, a communication startup that provides solutions for sales teams to communicate with customers via a corporate WhatsApp (thereby not using a seller's personal WhatsApp). The “CRM for WhatsApp” platform includes sending notifications, managing service queues, chatbot service, automating interaction, qualifying leads, and customer support services. As of July 2020, Sirena has approximately 700 customers across 30 countries. The acquisition of Sirena paved the way for Zenvia to expand to the entire Latin American market, with offices in the US, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
  
  
    For FY2020, the company reported revenue of USD 94 million, with Brazil accounting for  83% of total revenue, followed by Tonga making up 6%. As of December 2020, the company had more than 9,400 customers across Latin America.
  
  
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 150 million through its US listing. Further, the company plans to raise an additional USD 50 million in a private placement to Twilio. The fresh funds will be utilized for two main purposes: 1) approximately USD 57 million to acquire D1 (Direct One), a multichannel communication platform based in Brazil, and 2) for product development, M&As, and to fund the company’s global expansion plans.

Singaporean-US startup LeadIQ, founded by former Oracle product manager Mei Siauw, offers an account-based prospecting and lead management platform for outbound sales teams. The platform’s core features are sales cadence, an analytics dashboard, and a proprietary algorithm for data verification and enrichment. It also integrates with leading CRM tools such as Salesloft, Outreach, and Salesforce. 
  
  
    Users can subscribe to the platform for a starting price of USD 75 per month (per user).
  
  
    LeadIQ serves enterprise and mid-market clients and has over 20,000 users spanning 45 countries as of October 2021. Its customers include MuleSoft, WalkMe, Okta, Clari, Showpad, Segment, and Sitecore. 
  
  
    In 2020, the company reported its revenue had grown 3x while reporting an eight-digit annual recurring revenue.
  
  
    In October 2021, the company raised USD 30 million in a Series B funding round led by Cathay Innovation. It intends to allocate the funds toward hiring management personnel and product development, which includes the addition of features such as account prioritization, buying team and contact personalization, and sales team collaboration.

RingDNA offers sales playbooks, multichannel outreach, performance insights, and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations. In addition, the platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transform conversational data between customers and sales reps into actionable insights on sales rep performance which can be used in building buyer profiles. RingDNA’s AI-based guided selling features integrate with its sales playbook to create a list of priority leads and then recommends the best way to reach out to a potential buyer.  
  
  
    RingDNA released its conversation AI solution in November 2019 based on data from more than 130 million sales conversations. This allowed the platform to add sales coaching features to its platform.
  
  
    Guided selling capabilities were introduced in September 2020 and made accessible through its Salesforce CRM integration.
  
  
    The company’s most recent funding round was an October 2018 Series B for USD 30 million led by Goldman Sachs. The funds were allocated for product development and recruitment. RingDNA’s customers include Hewlett Packard, Amazon Web Services, Autodesk, SAP Concur, Lyft, and Twilio.

Revenue Grid (formerly known as Invisible.io) rebranded in April 2020 and launched Revenue Engage, Revenue Inbox (initially launched as Smart Cloud Connect in 2015), and Revenue Guide.  Revenue Inbox captures all customer-related data from email communication and automatically transfers it to the customer relationship management (CRM) database. Revenue Engage allows reps to manage leads, conduct outreach through multiple touchpoints, and execute customizable sales sequences using artificial intelligence (AI). Revenue Guide offers pipeline visibility, automated reminders, and recommended actions. The company claims its differentiating factor is its ability to automatically capture data related to deals, prospects, and engagements.
  
  
    As of September 2021, Revenue Grid serves more than 800,000 users across 1,200 brands. In addition, it reaches around 20,000 companies through OEM-white label partnerships with third-party vendors.
  
  
    Revenue Grid raised USD 20 million in a Series A funding round led by W3 Capital with participation from ICU Ventures in September 2021. The fresh funds are earmarked for platform development, including the addition of more AI features, and growing its presence in the Ukraine and US. Moreover, it intends to use the funds to increase its 150 strong employee base to 200 by 2022.

VanillaSoft is a sales engagement platform (SEP) that optimizes workflows across the entire sales cycle. It offers lead routing and tracking, email and SMS communication channels, meeting bookings, and customer relationship management (CRM) integration. The company is one of the few identified with a Salesforce native integration. VanillaSoft’s clients are primarily in the insurance, higher education, and tech sectors.
  
  
    In October 2020, the company acquired email outreach platform Autoklose to integrate its email campaign automation and sales cadence capabilities.
  
  
    The company raised USD 4 million in debt financing in its latest round of funding in May 2019. The capital was allocated to research and development (R&D), sales, and North American expansion.

Recapped.io offers collaborative action plans for sales teams, internal sales engineers, and customers via a platform that integrates with Salesforce to drive automation, reduce administrative work, and includes features such as reusable templates, and deal engagement scores. 
  
  
    Recapped.io offers two subscription options: An individual license priced at USD 29 per month and a team license starting at USD 39 per month. 
  
  
    As of July 2021, Recapped.io reported over 20,000 deals under management along with a team of 11 employees, and customers including Pendo, Clearbit, VTS, Second Nature, LiveIntent, IBM, Skaled, CloserIQ, ComplyAdvantage, and Datasembly. The company also reports that its platform has helped customers to close deals 18% faster with 23% more volume while reducing onboarding time by 28%.  
  
  
    In July 2021, the company raised USD 6.3 million in a seed funding round led by Charles River Ventures. The company also announced that its revenue had doubled every quarter since its public launch in the summer of 2020.

SendSquared’s sales platform offers email marketing, SMS, voice, and CRM solutions to resorts and hospitality organizations, enabling interaction with guests in real time. As of August 2021, it served over 100 resorts, hoteliers, and vacation rental management companies.
  
  
    SendSquared raised USD 1 million in a seed funding round led by Cobalt Capital Partners in August 2021. The fresh funds are expected to be allocated toward product development, expanding its sales, marketing, and product development teams, and entering into strategic partnerships.

Upscale offers personalized multi-channel outreach capabilities, guided selling, sales performance reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM) automation. 
  
  
    In April 2021, the company raised USD 250,000 in a pre-seed round led by Powerhouse Ventures, Java Capital, and GSF Accelerator. The company intends to use the funds for platform development and market expansion.