Salesken Raises $22 Mn In Series B Funding From Microsoft’s M12

AI startup Salesken has raised $22 Mn in a Series B round of funding led by M12—Microsoft’s Venture Fund. Existing investors including Sequoia India also participated in the round.

Founded in 2020 by Surga Thilakan and Sreeraman Vaidyanathan, Salesken provides an AI-powered in-call live sales intelligence platform by developing insights on gaps in customers’ sales calls and helping the sales representatives bridge gaps with real-time cues. 

“Salesken is addressing a critical need down the line of making the insights actionable with sales representatives, that translates into higher representative productivity. As remote selling has now become more mainstream, we see Salesken reduce onboarding time by 2-3 months, through live assistance to sales representatives from day zero. Salesken has dramatic outcomes on sales conversions, improving top-line by 20-25% within a few months of use,” said Surga Thilakan, cofounder and CEO of Salesken. 

The startup claims to provide sales representatives conversational support based on a behavioural and data-science-driven approach. The platform provides insight on various aspects, including sales pitches, lead qualification and navigating pricing discussion among others. 

Salesken will utilise the fresh infusion of funds towards accelerating expansion in the North American market and will invest further into its proprietary deep tech product. 

The global sales intelligence market was estimated to be worth $2 Bn in 2019, and is projected to grow to $3.4 Bn by 2024, at a CAGR of 11.4%. The immediate need for advanced software to improve customer targeting and connect rates, and the growing demand for data enrichment software to improve sales conversions is expected to drive this growth. 

“Mapping customer personas to relevant products, reading customer emotions and delivering relevant playbook-aligned responses is a persistent challenge for inside sales teams,” said Abhi Kumar, partner at M12. “SalesKen is defining the massive category for ‘In-Call Sales Intelligence’; it delivers immediate impact, improving conversions across sales organisations by 15-25% within 60 days of go-live.”

Sales intelligence provides marketers and sales representatives with precise information about buyers and improves the process of content mapping and creation. Access to real-time, enriched company data helps salespersons boost their lead generation process and transactions. Real-time cues for adjusting to the buyer persona provides an added level of granularity to the process of mapping out the customer journey.