For 2023, I’m thinking about adding the following to my list of qualifying questions for shortlisting Sales Enablement SaaS vendors:
- Large number of bolt-on acquisitions or clean codebase of features built with a single product vision?
- Organic growth as a vendor as opposed to many acquisitions of failed competitors? (Less likely to go out of business in 2023 as vendors without growth.)
New on my list of Israel-based Sales Enablement / B2B Sales Engagement MarTech companies:
substrata substrata.me @SubstrataHQ Social Signal Processing Technology (SSP) to fuel the b2b world. Leverages SSP technology to assess the dynamics that occur in negotiations & dealmaking and provide actionable insights. Performs in-depth analysis of non-verbal social cues incl. body language & voice, covering deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), social science, psychology, linguistics, & cognitive science: Outperforming Transcript-Dependent Conversation Intelligence Models! Fill the void of transcript-dependent conversation intelligence models. Reads between the lines. Often, the most critical information necessary to close a deal is left unsaid. Due to past one-dimensional practices, sales teams are bound to conduct tedious follow-ups, ask further questions, get down to the nitty-gritty details, & analyze manually collected data to perform appropriate solutions. This is time-consuming, counterproductive, & often yields poor outputs. With substrata’s capacity to combine computer science, social science, & behavioral psychology, it digs deep & deciphers human nonverbal communication tendencies. Tel Aviv, Israel
Sweep sweep.io @sweep_io fast way to build a CRM. No-code editor to manage GTM (go to market) motions on SFDC salesforce.com. Customize & scale any Salesforce configuration, without the dev time. CRM should be a source of efficiency, not frustration. Sweep helps you design the CRM that revenue teams really need. No more workarounds or compromises; build a responsive RevOps system to match the speed of your business. Push your CRM process to Salesforce; it automatically configures with just one click. Templates enable you to quickly add best-practice CRM funnels to your system. They’re simple to customize to your needs. Or, if you know exactly what you want, easily build funnels yourself. Sweep turns Salesforce configurations into real-time visuals of your business process. Pipeline information becomes more accessible & more intuitive. Sweep.io Ltd. Tel Aviv, New York, Madrid & Lisbon
[Edit] 28-Dec-2022, Bigtincan bigtincan.com acquires Sales Director salesdirector.ai @SalesDirectorAI Revenue Intelligence and Data Platform for B2B Sales Irvine, CA, USA. Acquisition consideration of US$1.2m with US$800k cash component funded from cash reserves raised through the institutional placement conducted in December 2022. SalesDirector.ai revenue in FY23 is not expected to be material.
WorkRamp workramp.com @workramp Enablement Cloud: Bridge the gap between strategy & execution. Onboard, train & develop employees. Training software built for sales & support teams. From driving revenue to increasing customer satisfaction, WorkRamp provides training software to help you build teams. Sales: Decrease ramp time & get your sales reps closing deals faster. Customer Success: Enable your success team to provide the best customer experience. PARTNERS: Empower your partners to better understand & sell your product. $1M in estimated revenue annually & competes with Mindflash, BambooHR, & Easygenerator. San Francisco, CA, USA. 18-May-2022, WorkRamp acquired The Enablement Squad for an undisclosed amount.
ConnectLeader connectleader.com @ConnectLeader 20-Apr-2021, ConnectLeader Rebrands to Koncert koncert.com @koncert_com Koncert’s Sales Engagement Platform delivers revenue & increases B2B sales productivity by up to 800%. Intelligent Sales Engagement Platform / Sales Acceleration Platform: Revenue growth & sales productivity. $20.3M in estimated revenue annually & competes with Outreach, Nexsales Corp., & aMarketForce. Salem, NH, USA
ExecVision ExecVision.io @ExecVision_io conversation intelligence software built for coaching. Washington, DC, USA. 27-Apr-2022, Mediafly @Mediafly acquired ExecVision. Mediafly, a sales enablement & revenue intelligence platform provider, has acquired ExecVision, a conversation intelligence (CI) provider. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
| Private Equity ($43M) from Invictus Growth Partners Invictus Growth Management LLC (26-Jul-2022): Allbound allbound.com @allbound |
| EQT (EQT Partners AB): Sitecore sitecore.com (Boxever, STYLELABS, Moosend) |
| FLEX Capital acquired a majority stake in ComX ComX.io “ComX.io AI for Sales” |
| Adobe: Adobe Experience Cloud / AEM / Marketo / ToutApp / Workfront |
| Cincom Systems cincom.com TeamSync CPQ Sync |
| Canva canva.com record & download “talking presentations”. Edit video: Canva Video suite. ‘Docs to Decks’. Canva Visual Worksuite |
| Dura Software (Revegy) |
| SAP (Callidus, iCentera, Litmos LMS, Emarsys, Signavio) CRM, CPQ, CLM |
| Alphabet Inc.: Google / Google Cloud Platform (G Suite / Drive / Docs / Sheets / Slides / Keep / Forms / Sites / programmablesearchengine.google.com) |
| Meta (Metaverse, Oculus / Reality Labs / Project Cambria / Meta Quest Pro! / Workplace by Facebook, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, etc) |
| Sprinklr Inc. also known as Demand Media, Inc. Sprinklr Modern Marketing; CMS |
| Asana for Marketing, Asana Operations & Asana for Sales & Account Management |
| Permira permira.com: Nu:Pitch became Seismic: Seismic (SAVO / SAVO Group, KnowledgeTree, Zensight, Percolate, Grapevine6, Lessonly [Obie acquired by Lessonly 29-Jul-2021]) |
| LegalZoom.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: LZ) [Revv revv.so @Revv_so previously known as RevvSales] |
| ZoomInfo Technologies (Predecessor DiscoverOrg) TellWise, Clickagy AI, Komiko, Chorus.ai, EverString |
| ServiceNow, Inc. (Attivio, Loom Systems, Passage AI, Sweagle, Montrêal-based Element AI) |
| Dropbox building a metaverse. Dropbox Paper, Dropbox for Business (HelloSign, DocSend docsend.com) |
| Salesforce CRM CMS / Sites / Content / Chatter / Quip / Einstein / AppExchange / Trailhead / Slack / LevelJump formerly Lurniture / Salesforce Genie / Genie for Tableau / MuleSoft / Slack Genie / Einstein AI & Flow automation |
| Microsoft: Microsoft Designer / Microsoft Office / Teams / SharePoint / Dynamics / Azure / Delve / Xbox / Mesh / Loop / Yammer / Skype / LinkedIn (PointDrive) LinkedIn Learning / Viva Sales seller’s companion to CRM working in productivity apps like Outlook & Teams w. integrations to Dynamics 365 Sales & Salesforce CRM |
| Atlassian Corporation Plc: Confluence Cloud, Trello, etc (doctape.com tape.io @doctapers / Percept.AI former Buddy AI) |
| NICE nice.com @NICELtd NICE Ltd / NICE Systems Ltd. (ContentEngine / MindTouch @MindTouch) |
| Axway axway.com (Atos [Unify unify.com Circuit by Unify will be sunset Dec-2022] bluekiwi.io bluekiwi-software.com acquired by Atos) |
| Private Equity Firm HGGC, LLC invested in Upland uplandsoftware.com: Altify, Kapost, RO|innovation, Qvidian (Sant & Kadient), BlueVenn, Objectif Lune Inc. objectiflune.com, BA-Insight Inc. |
| Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. [Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (EdCast)] |
| Zoom zoom.us @Zoom acquisition of Solvvy solvvy.com @solvvyinc to strengthen conversational AI capabilities & launched Zoom IQ for sales |
| Ziff Davis, Inc was J2 Global, Inc (Landslide Technologies Inc / CampaignerCRM / Campaigner campaigner.com @CampaignerEmail) |
| ESW Capital Group: Aurea, Inc. (Jive Software / XANT, Inc. XANT.ai [now once again insidesales.com] PLAYBOOKS) |
| Insight Partners: Optimizely rebranded Episerver Inc [Insite Software acquired Storyworks Ondemand/Storyworks1 optimizely.com acquired Insite]) |
| TA Associates: Revalize revalizesoftware.com @revalize acquired Sofon Solutions sofon.com @SofonSoftware @SofonDE Sofon Guided Solutions |
| Thoma Bravo private equity firm: Bridge @GetBridge getbridge.com by instructure.com @Instructure / Conga conga.com (Octiv [formerly TinderBox]) acquired by Apttus apttus.com |
| Vista Equity Partners: ACQUIA INC acquia.com (Widen Enterprises, Inc. widen.com), SalesLoft (Costello, Noteninja), Drift drift.com (@GiantOtterTech AI), Pipedrive pipedrive.com (Mailigen) Sales Docs, Khoros (Lithium Technologies, LLC / Lithium Technologies [Jive Software]) |
| TPG private investment firm: Nintex (Drawloop Technologies / K2) |
| opentext.com acquired Documentum / Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Division. The product originally called Livelink became an OpenText flagship product |
| Showpad (LearnCore, LIA, Voicefox, Hickup, Taptera) |
| Oracle CPQ Cloud former BigMachines Inc + InQuira / Oracle Netsuite configure, price, & quote (CPQ) = Netsuite CPQ for sales teams |
| Dialpad dialpad.com @Dialpad acquired TalkIQ @Talk_iq |
| Gong.io (Vayo, ONDiGO) |
| 6sense.com @6senseInc 6sense Insights, Inc. acquired Slintel slintel.com @Slintel_Inc as well as Granite Media, Saleswhale, Fortella, ZenIQ.io |
| Demand Science: PureB2B, Klarity, Internal Results, Leadiro [B2B sales enablement, sales intelligence & data enrichment platform], Tidings, BIOMES, airborne app |
| Coveo coveo.com (Qubit. qubit.com) |
| Sumeru Equity Partners: Former SocialChorus |
| mediafly (Alinean / iPresent / Presentify presentify.co.uk / InsightSquared [acquired Olono Olono.ai] / Aptology aptology.com @APTOLOGY1 / ExecVision ExecVision.io) |
| SQN Investors hold 13.6% of the AI-powered software provider @Bigtincan: Bigtincan bigtincan.com [Contondo, FatStax, Zunos, Veelo (mobilepaks), Asdeq Labs, XINN, Agnitio, Clearslide (SlideRocket), VoiceVibes, Vidinoti, Brainshark, StorySlab storyslab.com, Task Exchange |
B2B Sales Enablement and Sales Tech SaaS 