A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – SALES FORCE AUTOMATION
- Handshake, a sales rep order & catalog app for iPad & iPhone raises $14M Series B round led by Sozo Ventures along with the participation of existing investors Emergence Capital, SoftTech VC, BOLDstart Ventures, MHS Capital, Point Nine and Primary Ventures Link
- IKO System, a lead generation and scoring platform raised $2.78M Series A from Naxicap Partners, 3T Capital and Bpifrance Link
- ROI Innovation, a sales & marketing analytics provider raised $1M in order to support the acquisition of competitor Boulder Logic Link
- Replyapp, a email prospecting and sales automation tool raised $400k in a round led by Digital Future along with participation from Wannabiz Link
- SalesForce launched a field service product as part of its Field Service Lightning offering Link
- Salesforce announced Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, a service to let financial advisors build deeper relationships with clients and become more productive by automating more of the relevant client information from disparate IT systems Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Rambl (2015, Atlanta) – Speech analytics for InsideSales teams.
ZenSight (2014, Boston) – Provides sales intelligence by analyzing CRM & email data.
LEADER BOARD – SALES FORCE AUTOMATION
CRM
SalesForce (1999, SF, IPO) – Comprehensive CRM and Sales enablement solutions provider. Revolutionized the cloud based enterprise software market. Backed by CS First Boston, WR Hambrecht and angels from Oracle, KLA Tencor and CNET. Went Public in 2004.
SAP (1972, Walldorf, IPO) – Provides end to end business management application software for enterprises. Went Public in 1998.
Oracle (1977, Redwood City, IPO) – Provides business management applications for enterprises. Entered the CRM market following its acquisition of Siebel Systems in September 2005. Went Public in 1986.
CRM – Small Businesses
InfusionSoft (2001, Chandler, $128M) – Provides sales and marketing automation software for small businesses that combines CRM, email marketing and e-commerce. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, Arthur Ventures and Allure Ventures.
Lead Generation
Relationship Science (2010, NYC, $121M) – A business development tool that provides information on decision makers along with analytical tools and reporting dashboards. Backed by TABLE Holdings, MacAndrews, Hearst and RIT Capital Partners.
InsideView (2005, SF, $89M) – Provides market intelligence for sales and marketing teams. Backed by Emergence Capital, Rembrandt Ventures, SplitRock, Foundation Capital and Spring Lake Equity partners.
Lead Scoring
InsideSales (2004, Provo, $199M) – Provides a predictive lead scoring and management platform along with sales acceleration tools. Backed by Polaris, SalesForce Ventures, USVP, KPCB, HWVP and Microsoft.
Radius (2009, SF, $133M) – Predictive Sales and Marketing platform powered by a data science engine that fuses and analyses customer data with business signals. Backed by Formation8, BlueRun Ventures, American Express, Glynn Capital and Founders Fund.
Everstring (2012, San Mateo, $79M) – Offers a platform for sales and marketing teams to leverage public and in-house data for predictive lead scoring. Backed by Lightspeed, IDG, Sequoia, Lakestar, China Capital and Microsoft.
Productivity Tools
Clearslide (2009, SF, $89M) – Provides sales communication tools to increase effectiveness in customer facing communication. Backed by BVP, Comcast, Greylock, Felicis, Social Capital and SVB.
Clari (2012, Mountain View, $26M) – Offers a Predictive analytics platform for forecast management and mobile based tools for increasing rep productivity. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Northgate Capital.
Performance Management
XactlyCorp (2005, San Jose, IPO) – Provides cloud based incentive compensation and performance management solutions for enterprises. Backed by Alloy Ventures, Illuminate Ventures, Rembrandt Ventures and Bay Partners. Went Public in 2015.
Badgeville (2010, Redwood City, $40M) – Sales Gamification and Social Engagement platform for enterprises. Backed by Interwest, Trinity, Norvest VP, Webb Investment Network and El Dorado Ventures.
Content Management Systems
Savo Group (1999, Chicago, $79M) – Provides collaborative sales enablement and content management solutions. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Sapphire Ventures, NXT Capital and Sterling Partners.
Seismic (2011, California, $25M) – Offers mobile first enterprise content management and sales enablement solutions. Backed by JMI Equity and SigmaWest.
Field Sales Tools
Spring Mobile Solutions (2001, Seattle, $78M) – Provides mobile apps for field workforce management. Backed by Goldman Sachs, NEA and Sapphire Ventures.
CPQ
Selectica (1996, San Mateo, IPO) – Provides enterprise contract management and CPQ solutions. Went Public in 2000.
Apttus (2006, San Mateo, $186M) – Provides Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ), Contract Management, Renewals and Revenue Management solutions. Backed by Kuwait Investment Authority, SalesForce Ventures, Iconiq Capital and K1 Investment Management.
Inside Sales Tools
inContact (1997, Midvale, IPO) – Provides cloud based contact center solutions with call routing and agent optimization tools. Went Public in 2007.
Five9 (2001, San Ramon, IPO) – Helps enterprises manage inbound, outbound, blended, or multi-channel contact centers for sales and marketing. Backed by Sapphire, HWVP, Adam Street Partners, Fifth Street Technology Partners, Partech Ventures and Mosaic Capital. Went Public in 2014.
8×8 (1987, San Jose, IPO) – Provides cloud based Unified communication solutions. Went Public in 1997.
Analytics
FirstRain (1997, San Mateo, $85M) – Business intelligence for structured and unstructured data. Backed by Diamondhead Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Ampersand Capital Partners, Allegra Partners, Myriad Investments and St.Paul Venture Capital.
InsightSquared (2010, Cambridge, $27M) – Sales and Marketing Analytics for SMBs. Backed by Two Sigma Ventures, Bessemer VP, DFJ Venture, Atlas Ventures, Salesforce, GrandBanks Capital, NextView Ventures.
Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
For latest updates, visit Sales Force Automation feed.