Venture Capital News: Showpad Nabs $70M Series D Round
2019-06-25
CHICAGO, IL, Showpad, the leading sales enablement solution, has secured $70 million in Series D funding.
Showpad has secured $70 million in Series D funding, a combination of debt and equity, led by Dawn Capital and Insight Partners with participation from existing investor Hummingbird Ventures and new investor Korelya Capital. Silicon Valley Bank provided the debt financing for the deal. The investment will fuel Showpad's continued global expansion and new product development as Showpad accelerates delivery on its mission to empower sales and marketing to sell the way modern buyers want to buy.
Showpad is the world's largest sales enablement software provider, with more than 1,000 customers worldwide spanning a breadth of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and financial services. With more than 90 percent year-over-year growth, Showpad's rapid expansion is indicative of the explosive growth of the sales enablement market segment. According to Gartner, 15 percent of all sales technology spending will be applied to sales enablement technology by 2021.
"The growth we've experienced in the past year is proof that sales enablement solutions are now a must-have for B2B businesses. We pride ourselves on empowering modern sales teams to increase win rates, deal size, and buyer engagement with a single, scalable platform and a consumer-like user experience," said Pieterjan Bouten, CEO of Showpad. "The continued support of our investors is validation of our vision for the sales enablement market and our ability to deliver innovation that maximizes sales productivity and optimizes marketing impact."
Showpad has experienced explosive growth in recent years. In the U.S., the company has experienced 150 percent year-over-year revenue growth and grew the headcount of its Chicago office to more than 150 employees in just 18 months. With this investment, Showpad will drive continued growth in the sales enablement market by adding more than 200 new jobs to its global workforce of 400 in 2019. This investment will also drive the next chapter of the company's geographic and platform expansion, including deeper penetration into the European market, which Showpad has dominated since its founding in 2011. In addition to its headquarters in Belgium, Showpad has offices in London, Munich, Poland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland.
With organizations accelerating their investments in sales enablement, Showpad remains focused on extending its leadership position in the sales enablement industry. In 2018, Showpad acquired two technology companies to broaden its sales enablement capabilities, including the $50 million acquisition of sales training software, LearnCore, and the acquisition of meeting intelligence platform, Voicefox. As a result, Showpad now offers the most flexible and complete sales enablement platform and is recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Sales Enablement Automation Platforms, Q3 2018.
"To date there has been enormous innovation in automating the marketing and sales workflow. However, in the end, sales comes down to one person selling to another," said Norman Fiore, General Partner at Dawn Capital and member of the Showpad Board. "Historically, this has been an offline process that has been wildly inconsistent and opaque. Showpad's suite of products succeeds in bringing this process online for the first time with data-rich feedback loops on the effectiveness of teams, managers, salespeople and even individual pieces of sales content."
"Its AI-driven recommendation engines work at all these levels recommending, for example, the most effective next piece of content for specific customers or the most appropriate training for an individual seller. Since we first invested in 2014, Showpad has consistently demonstrated its ability to define and lead the sales enablement category and we are thrilled to double down on this category, co-leading their Series D alongside Insight."
To learn more about Showpad's product, mission and vision, visit showpad.com
About Showpad
Showpad empowers modern sales teams to scale sales excellence and optimize marketing impact. With a flexible and complete sales enablement solution, Showpad powers better sales content management, onboarding, training, and coaching to empower sellers, engage buyers, and win more deals.
More than 1,200 global enterprise and midmarket customers, including Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare, Bridgestone, Honeywell, and Merck, rely on Showpad to drive faster sales cycles, increase win rates, and close bigger deals by providing a better buyer experience.
Founded in 2011, the company has headquarters in Ghent and Chicago with offices in Brussels, London, Munich, Wroclaw, San Francisco, and Portland. To learn more about Showpad, visit www.showpad.com or follow Showpad on Twitter and Linkedin.
About Dawn
Dawn Capital ("Dawn") is the largest VC fund dedicated to B2B software and B2B fintech start-ups across Europe. Dawn invests from Series A onwards, backing companies that develop world-leading offerings with unbeatable economics. Currently investing out of its third fund of $235 million, Dawn offers ambitious founders operational and financial support to deliver exceptional value growth. Dawn's portfolio companies include Mimecast, iZettle (sold to PayPal for $2.2bn cash), Collibra, Showpad, Dataiku, Automile, and Neo Technology, with many others looking to join their ranks.
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