Cien, a leading provider of AI-powered sales productivity solutions, today announced the completion of a seed round totaling $3.5M, $1.2M of which was provided by Elaia, with follow on from the founders and private investors.

The new round provides AI-for-Sales company Cien with additional resources to accelerate its market presence in North America.

In partnership with Salesforce.com, Cien helps B2B companies improve the effectiveness of their sales teams by applying artificial intelligence to their CRM data, without the need for building and hiring dedicated data-science teams.

Based in Dallas, TX, the company operates a Center of Excellence for data science and artificial intelligence in Barcelona, Spain.

Cien's plug and play software calculates over 100 million predictions per day and uncovers tens of millions of dollars in lost sales opportunities.

Market intelligence firm IDC estimates that spending on AI-powered sales process recommendation and automation solutions will grow at a compounded annual rate of 54.1% over the 2016-2021 period.

The investment in Cien marks Elaia's latest investment in deep tech. Elaia has a proven track record with similar businesses such as Criteo, Mirakl and Sigfox.

Of the transaction, Xavier Lazarus, Partner at Elaia, who is joining Cien's board of directors, said: "The timing for investing at an AI-first startup like Cien could not be better. We were particularly impressed by the founders' track record of serial entrepreneurship and the fact that Cien's business has built-in global distribution from day one."

Rob Kall, Cien's CEO and CoFounder said: "Elaia brings deep expertise and a network that will help Cien grow even faster. Today the firms who are injecting AI into their sales process are doing it as a way of gaining an edge over their competition. However, it won't be too long before AI becomes table-stakes for any sales organization."

About Cien
Cien gives companies the power of artificial intelligence to increase the productivity and effectiveness of their sales teams. Available on the Salesforce AppExchange, Cien's app takes into account human and behavioral elements to detect problems, predict outcomes and recommend the shortest path to success. For more information, visit www.cien.ai.

About Elaia
Elaia is an independent Paris-based venture capital firm managing over €350m focused on digital & deep tech startups, from early stage to growth development. Elaia backs tech disruptors such as Criteo (IPO), Orchestra Networks (sold to Tibco), Sigfox, Teads (sold to Altice), Mirakl, tinyclues, Shift Technology. For more information visit www.elaia.com.