software – B2B Sales Enablement and Sales Tech SaaS

Private Equity as strategic & operational support to help b2b Sales Enablement MarTech SaaS

The trend covered in my post “Private equity is eating the Sales Enablement and Sales Engagement part of the MarTech market” is continuing:

Private Equity Firm HGGC, LLC

14-Jul-2022, Private Equity Firm HGGC, LLC hggc.com $115M strategic equity investment into @UplandSoftware in the form of a new class of convertible preferred stock issued at a premium to Upland’s current market price. Provides incremental capital intended to capture the attractive M&A opportunity set that is expected to emerge as a result of the current macroeconomic environment. It also brings additional strategic & operational support as HGGC and Upland work together to strengthen the company’s go-to-market capability to fully leverage the value of its enterprise customer base & strong product portfolio.

UPLAND PUBLICLY TRADED AS $UPLD

Altify
Kapost
RO|innovation
Qvidian
- (Sant & Kadient)
BlueVenn
Objectif Lune Inc. objectiflune.com
BA-Insight Inc. bainsight.com

Streamz – one of my latest additions to this market overview graph came from a submission via this quest powered by Questmate.com which is free for nonprofit organizations now:

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Streamz streamz.ai @Streamzai AI-based mobile sales readiness platform that empowers companies to build & maintain a highly prepared, engaged, & differentiated sales team. Enable, train & empower your sales talent everywhere. Get your team sales ready- Faster & Easier. Accelerate your business with our world-class mobile-driven sales enablement & readiness platform. Leverage our AI-enabled continuous measurement technology. Set yourself apart from your competition now. GROW YOUR SALES REVENUE WITH PROVEN DATA DRIVEN AI-ENABLED APPROACHES. Track, measure & improve sales knowledge & skills continuously with mobile-first sales enablement technology. Correlate with various sales metrics, & address key learning gaps. Create effective sales readiness programs that can drive improvements individually & at enterprise level. Achieve your sales goals through smarter actions. TeamStreamz Pte Ltd. Singapore, India

I have added Streamz to…

Gondola (rebranded) Gondola.ai @GondolaAi boosts deal momentum by enabling productive sales conversations. Before the rebranding it used to be: Demoflow demoflow.io ~~@thedemoflow~~ demo platform that helps you wow prospects & sell more, faster. Demo platform that enables to streamline prep, presentation, follow-up, & documentation across a sales organization. The company’s integrated CRM documentation & live URL management that allows the user to conduct seamless product demos every single time. Founded 2019. Denver, CO, USA. Swivel Demos Inc., dba Demoflow, a Delaware corporation (“Demoflow”)

Balto ~~baltosoftware.com~~ balto.ai @balto_ai Real-Time Guidance platform – shows agents the best things to say, automatically scores 100% of calls, & alerts managers for coaching moments in real-time. Help Agents Say the Right Thing on Every Single Call: Balto shows agents the best things to say, automatically scores 100% of calls, & alerts managers for coaching moments in real-time. Getting Conversations Right: Start improving conversations when it matters most: in the moment. Get more sales & happier customers in just 45 days with Real-Time Guidance. Powered by AI, Balto listens to both sides of a conversation & visually prompts agents with the best things to say, live on every call. Scale “perfect” to thousands of agents with the push of a button & get immediate insight into what’s working & what’s not. Balto Software, Inc. St. Louis, MO, USA

The following table highlights how private equity is eating Sales Enablement / MarTech. Also see my database of 730 line items

EQT (EQT Partners AB): Sitecore sitecore.com (Boxever, STYLELABS, Moosend)

Adobe: Adobe Experience Cloud / AEM / Marketo / ToutApp

Cincom Systems cincom.com TeamSync CPQ Sync

Canva canva.com record & download “talking presentations”. Edit video

SAP (Callidus, iCentera, Litmos LMS, Emarsys, Signavio) CRM, CPQ, CLM

Google Cloud Platform (G Suite / Drive / Docs / Sheets / Slides / Keep / Forms / Sites)

Meta (Metaverse, Workplace by Facebook, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, 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])

ZoomInfo Technologies (Predecessor DiscoverOrg) TellWise, Clickagy AI, Komiko, Chorus.ai, EverString ~~everstring.com~~ @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

Microsoft Office / Teams / SharePoint / Dynamics / Azure / Delve / Xbox / Mesh / Loop / Yammer / Skype / LinkedIn (PointDrive) LinkedIn Learning

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. bainsight.com

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)

Highspot

Dialpad dialpad.com @DialpadHQ acquired TalkIQ @Talk_iq

Gong.io (Vayo, ONDiGO)

6sense.com @6senseInc 6sense Insights, Inc. acquired Slintel slintel.com @Slintel_Inc

Demand Science: PureB2B, Klarity, Internal Results, Leadiro [B2B sales enablement, sales intelligence & data enrichment platform], Tidings, BIOMES, airborneapp.io

Coveo coveo.com (Qubit. qubit.com)

Sumeru Equity Partners: Former SocialChorus ~~socialchorus.com~~ SocialChorus & Dynamic Signal combined to create Firstup firstup.io @Firstup_io

Bigtincan bigtincan.com: [Contondo, FatStax, Zunos, Veelo (mobilepaks), Asdeq Labs, XINN, Agnitio, Clearslide (SlideRocket), VoiceVibes, Vidinoti, Brainshark]

Growth and market size of the Sales Enablement part of the MarTech and SalesTech markets

I track the number of LinkedIn users with Sales Enablement in their current job title on LinkedIn.

6-Jul-2022, LinkedIn had 16k users like that globally. Of course, that includes many employees of Sales Enablement SaaS software vendors. Nevertheless, that’s more than 5x since 2015, when I started tracking it. [My blog turned 13 years old in 2022.]

Thank you to Mike Kunkle @Mike_Kunkle for mentioning this work of mine in his book:

Go deep in understanding alternatives NOT competitors.

— Jen Abel (@jjen_abel) February 26, 2021

The most recent additions to my complete database on airtable are:

CoSell cosell.io @CoSell_io Sell More, Together. Sell more with your investors, advisors, & execs. Unlock revenue through your exclusive network purpose-built for referrals & relationship-selling. Leverage your investors, advisors, customers, & internal execs to break into your key accounts. For any startup, demand generation is the oxygen that they breathe. With infinite choices, today’s customers have become numb to traditional mass marketing & cold outreach. The last great opportunity to provide this needed oxygen is to empower revenue teams to build networks for relationship-selling. CoSell, Inc. Austin, Texas

Valuecase valuecase.de @valuecase End-to-end customer engagement for B2B sales teams. “A Selling Experience Buyers Love”: Become the most buyer-centric sales team by working alongside your B2B prospects in a single personalised space. Align on key milestones & set joint goals to close the deal. Handover to customer success seamlessly. The relationship between sellers & buyers changed dramatically. We aim to redefine B2B purchasing, just as Salesforce & HubSpot have transformed the market over the last 20 years. We rethink how B2B sales organizations engage with buyers, helping them to increase their conversion rates & build long-lasting relationships. Our vision at Valuecase is to host every B2B buyer-seller relationship. Hamburg, Germany. Valucase GmbH

I’ve also added Valuecase to my list of companies from Europe (European Sales Enablement software) and to my list for German companies.

On my other list of tools that brands in this market use globally I have added:

Socxo socxo.com / socx.ly @socxo Create a successful Brand Ambassador Program. Employee Advocacy, Brand Advocacy, Mobile Application… In an age when the digital ecosystem is overcrowded, making organic growth difficult, social media brand ambassador programs could be the answer to get people talking. Build a winning social media brand ambassador program! USA

Predicting Sales Enablement part of b2b MarTech market to reach $10bn in 2023

Given the current market environment, the winners in the Sales Enablement market & private equity can be expected to continue to acquire smaller and stagnating players.

For 2023, I’m predicting the Sales Enablement market (counting some alternatives and indirect competitors) to reach $10bn USD in annual revenue:

Go deep in understanding alternatives NOT competitors.

— Jen Abel (@jjen_abel) February 26, 2021

Also see my database of almost 725 line items and download my market overview graph to zoom in:

Companies I recently added on this blog & my airtable database:

SetSail setsail.co @SetSailCo Get complete & actionable sales signals from across all your systems — automatically & in real-time. AI-powered platform that combines data & behavioral science to drive more revenue per sales rep. Uses AI to identify the buying signals needed to close a deal. The platform then converts these signals into recommendations for sales reps, providing micro-rewards for following the best path of action & building good selling habits. SetSail Technologies, Inc. San Mateo, California, United States

Frnd frnd.ai @frnd_ai Intelligent Sales Enablement Platform: A smart email plugin for salespeople to share contextual content with buyers in one click & close deals faster. Equip your sales team with the most relevant content always! When your sales team gets into a conversation with the buyer via email or Linkedin, show them contextual content via a smart browser plugin to share & close that deal faster. Founded Date: 21-Mar-2022. Frnd Inc., San Francisco, California, USA

Lative lative.io @Lative_io view & manage your sales organisation’s performance! Make better investment decisions, improve operating margins & design the right sales organisations for the future. Are my sales teams effective & efficient? Am I investing in the right areas? Do I have enough sales capacity to reach the targets? Am I setting targets that drive the right sales behaviours? What are my true ramp times for new hires? What impact did sales enablement activities have? We standardize & deliver the Growth Efficiency Metric (GEM Score) to help businesses grow efficiently. The Lative platform provides real-time insights enabling customers to make real-time decisions to manage growth efficiency, headcount effectiveness & capacity planning. Accurately predicting your future & provide insights & simulations to better manage your business & greatly reduce planning cycles. Lative Limited, Dublin, Ireland

Sizle sizle.io @sizle_io all-in-one document collaboration & analysis toolkit used in 150+ countries. No matter what you’re sharing, ensure the right files are sent to the right people at the right time. “Seeing how much time prospects spend on each slide of a presentation a helps us optimize all of our sales & marketing collateral.” “[…] find the concept of using a presentation together with a lead capture workflow genius, I use Sizle when I need to send a document to a new prospect.” Sizle Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia

speakeasy speakeasy.to basically Slack but not owned by Salesforce. Combining the best features of incumbent communication apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, & Slack, Speakeasy is a next-generation platform that prioritises user experience & reduces friction to help you get more done with less effort. Email Signatures: Generate a clean & professional email signature without any effort, it does the work for you. Speakeasy’s database is encrypted both at rest & at work & all data is transmitted securely using industry-standard encryption. We hold the encryption keys to be able to send & display your messages & other data, but we’ve strong & strict access protocols, policies, & auditing in place to prevent misuse. The platform is not end-to-end encrypted, but it is as protected as it possibly can be. Perth, WA, Australia

Performio performio.co @PerformioICM built by sales comp experts for sales comp professionals. Make communicating sales comp simple: Sales reps have their own platform to see what they’re getting paid & why. Provide your team with accurate commission reports, real-time leaderboards, & detailed transaction information – at their desk or on mobile devices. Ensure your reps focus on selling, not on commission disputes. Automate your sales commission calculations. Communicate sales comp in an instant. Gain actionable insights from having all your sales compensation data in one place. Complex commissions made easy: Enterprise-grade incentive compensation management software that gets you up & running in weeks. Adapts to your needs with data transformation capabilities, & a complete library of no-code pre-built comp plan components. Spend less time paying & more time driving performance. We believe the commissions process should be seamless to spend your time designing plans that help you enter new markets, launch new products, & adapt to change. Easily calculate sales commissions: Stop working in spreadsheets. Eliminate the hassle of sales commission calculations. Say goodbye to payment errors & the time, effort, & cost it takes to correct them. Enterprise-grade features incl. crediting rules, pre-built plan components, & automated workflows. Automate your calculations to focus on more important work. PerformanceCentre International Pty Ltd ABN 45783065114 Melbourne, VIC, Australia & Orange County, California, United States

Databook trydatabook.com @trydatabook enterprise customer intelligence platform built to increase GTM productivity at scale. Helps sales leaders empower teams for maximum performance, productivity, & pipeline. Automated sales presentations: Personalized deliverables, fast & easy. Databook’s automated sales modules help you create custom, data-driven content in record time. Databook’s solutions for a variety of automated sales deliverables are time-savers that kick productivity into overdrive. One-click downloads, customized for everything from first calls to executive briefings, ensure consistent points of view are shared with influential buyers. At the same time, higher sales productivity means more Account Execs meet quota & pipeline remains consistent. Sales teams at Salesforce, Microsoft, Databricks, & many other of the biggest, fastest-growing software companies in the world leverage Databook to sell their largest deals & consistently beat quotas. Sales reps transform into strategic sellers, identifying lucrative opportunities & driving pipeline at the executive-buyer level. Databook is a Series B, hyper-growth startup, backed by the most successful SaaS investors, such as Bessemer, & has recently raised a $50m round to fuel accelerated expansion. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA with a distributed team across the globe. Databook Labs, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, USA. 16-Feb-2022, Databook valuation hits $550M for its sales prospect intelligence software. Databook competitors include Brew, Crayon, & Klue.

Zoom zoom.us @Zoom acquisition of Solvvy solvvy.com @solvvyinc to strengthen conversational AI capabilities & launched Zoom IQ for sales

EQT (EQT Partners AB): Sitecore (Boxever, STYLELABS, Moosend)