Funding

• Apollo.io raised USD 100 million in a Series D funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to USD 1.6 billion. The funds were expected to drive platform development and workforce expansion, with a goal to double employee count by 2025. It also reported a revenue growth of 9x over the last two years. (August 29, 2023; Press release)

• Mediafly raised USD 80 million in a funding round led by BIP Ventures to improve its comprehensive revenue enablement platform tailored for large enterprises. During the last 18 months, Mediafly expanded its customer base by 164% and integrated features from five revenue tech vendors. (August 29, 2023; Press release)

New product/service launch

• Salesforce introduced Slack Sales Elevate, a product that integrates Sales Cloud and Slack to create a personalized hub for sales teams. The integrated platform centralizes data, streamlines operations, and automates tasks. Notable features include a customized sales space, real-time updates on accounts, AI-driven workflows, and easy access to templates. (August 02, 2023; Press release) 

• Salesforce unveiled Einstein Studio as part of its Data Cloud service, providing businesses with a user-friendly platform to deploy their AI models within Salesforce applications. The tool streamlines data access, simplifies model training, and integrates with large language models (LLMs), boosting AI capabilities for extracting value from customer data and optimizing business processes. (August 09, 2023; MarkTechPost)

• Mindtickle launched Mindtickle Copilot, a generative AI-driven sales enablement and readiness solution. It automates program performance analysis, streamlines call reviews, and delivers valuable insights to boost sales team efficiency. (August 23, 2023; DemandGen)

M&As

• Clari acquired Groove, a sales workforce automation platform, to offer an end-to-end revenue platform that manages internal and external revenue workflows, from prospecting to closing to renewing. (August 14, 2023; VentureBeat)

Management news

• Salesloft appointed Sam Loveland as its chief customer officer, leveraging her extensive 20-year background in SaaS leadership, including positions at Salesforce, Yammer, and ServiceNow. In this role, Loveland will concentrate on optimizing customer value and enhancing the overall customer experience, ensuring that customers make the most of the platform. (August 10, 2023; Press release)

Industry news

• Salesforce announced that it was reducing its Irish workforce by ~50 jobs, following a prior round of layoffs earlier this year , which impacted about 10% of its employees. These layoffs will primarily affect Salesforce's sales and customer teams in Ireland. (August 02, 2023; Independent)