Sales technology platform Apollo.io announced that it had managed to raise financing in the amount of $100 million.
Currently, this technology platform is estimated at $1.6 billion. The company said that the funds were received from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Tribe Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners. The investment round was led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Last year, this firm was valued at about $900 million. This assessment was recorded after a round of financing, during which the company managed to raise investment funds in the amount of $110 million.
Apollonian.io claims that it currently serves more than 500 thousand companies and has several million users of the sales platform and marketing workflow tools. The firm’s clients are Stripe, a payment service provider, DocuSign, an electronic signature company, and the Utah Jazz National Basketball Association team.
Platform Apollo.io provides client data to help users increase sales. Currently, the company uses artificial intelligence technologies to adapt email messages.
Tim Zheng, co-founder and chief executive officer of the firm, says that the brand’s products automate a lot of boring things that, as part of standard practice, have to be done manually. He also said that the company’s long-term goal is an initial public offering of shares.
Raising capital at a higher valuation is something like a dream for many firms. For Apollo.io this is the achieved result, which has positive financial consequences. Bain Capital Ventures partner Merritt Hummer said the firm’s track record is attractive to investors even during a technological downturn. She noted that Apollo.io is a sample of effective growth.
With more than $250 million in a bank account, the company, which owns a sales technology platform, intends to invest in product development and R&D. Also, by 2025, the firm plans to increase the number of employees from 450 to 1000 people. These are specialists who work in the areas of personnel management, engineering, marketing, law, and design.
Tim Zheng said that over the past year, the company has released 20 new workflows to enter the market. The new funding, he said, will accelerate the pace of development in order to centralize the entire package of proposals.
Approach Apollo.io towards product-oriented growth, provides that 60% of the funds are invested in development and everything is created on its own. According to Tim Zheng, this strategy has already provided a rapid expansion of the customer base and intensive revenue growth.
Apollo.io CEO says that traditional technology packages for entering the market contain disparate tools that are difficult to set up and no less difficult to integrate. Also, this toolkit is a financial burden for many enterprises. Tim Zheng mentioned the Salesforce sales report for 2022, which notes that companies on average use ten tools to conclude deals.
Apollo.io CEO also stated that his firm differs from competitors offering point solutions by the concept of an integrated approach that takes into account the complexity of the tasks.
As we have reported earlier, AI Startup Hugging Face Raises $235 Million.
