Cold Call: 65+ Companies Transforming The Sales Tech Landscape

In 2016, deals and dollars invested into sales tech startups reached all-time highs of over $5B invested across 425 deals. And this quarter has already seen two prominent deals to private sales tech companies — a $50M Series F round to InsideSales.com as well as a $40M Series D round to Xiaoshouyi.

With deal count and dollar amount reaching all-time highs in 2016, we used CB Insights database to create a market map of primarily VC-backed sales tech companies that have received funding within the last 18 months. We mapped these 65+ startups across 7 major categories in which they’re operating.

We define sales tech to include companies developing tech-enabled solutions that directly serve sales teams or improve upon the sales process, as well as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. We also chose to include companies that improve upon customer experience, engagement, communication, and booking processes for companies across various industries such as travel and health. We exclude companies that primarily focus on tech-enabled marketing or advertising. While some of these companies on our map work across different categories in the map, we categorized them based on their primary use case.

Click on the image below to enlarge. This market map is not meant to be exhaustive of companies in the space. 

Category breakdown

Sales Enablement & Acceleration: These companies develop products which directly improve upon and speed up the sales process. Companies include Apttus, a provider of software that streamlines the entire sales process from beginning to end, and Tact, a company using artificial intelligence (AI) in order to improve the usability of existing CRM systems.

General CRM: Unlike the category above, companies in this category provide a CRM platform in addition to a wider range of sales tools and services. Other services offered include email tracking, pipeline management, voice-call integration, and online booking. Companies include Prosperworks, Shore, and Base, all of which offer CRM platforms and related products.

Customer Experience: These companies offer products which aim to increase sales and drive revenue specifically through the transformation and improvement of the customer journey. Companies include Takt, which harnesses the power of AI in order to personalize customer experiences on a large scale, and WalkMe, which aims to help companies better guide users through online experiences.

Contact & Communication: With a focus on direct contact with customers, these companies aim to improve upon customer communication through a variety of methods including call-center and voice-related technology, as well as messaging platform communication. Companies include Conversica, Intercom, Cyara, and CafeX Communications.

People Development & Coaching: These companies offers products aimed at the direct improvement, education, or incentivizing of salespeople. Companies include Qstream, a platform that streamlines sales onboarding and coaching, and CommercialTribe, a video-based collaborative platform that helps train sales representatives.  

Intelligence & Analytics: These companies aim to increase sales by providing data-driven insights and analytics to their clients. Companies include Lattice Engines, which allows companies to gain comprehensive intelligence on each of their customers, and Chorus.ai, a platform that provides intelligence on sales conversations.

Customer Support: Focusing on customer service, these companies offer products which focus on improving customer satisfaction. Companies include Freshdesk, Sparkcentral, and Gladly, all of which offer products that streamline the customer service process.

See the full company list below

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