US-based cloud sales software producer Apttus raised $55m on Wednesday in a series E round that included enterprise software provider and strategic partner Salesforce, which invested through its Salesforce Ventures unit.
Private equity fund Premji Invest led the round, which increased the company’s overall funding to $329m since it was founded in 2006, and K1 Investment Management and Iconiq Capital also participated. Goldman Sachs was placement agent for the deal.
Apttus has developed what it calls Quote-to-Cash software, which helps salespeople optimise the sales process between the point where a customer shows interest and the closure of the deal.
The software consists of a number of cloud-based applications and is compatible with Salesforce’s Salesforce 1 platform. It launched a conversational artificial intelligence tool called Max this week to simplify enterprise sales functions.
Salesforce Ventures, K1 and Iconiq have backed Apttus since its $37m series A round in 2013, returning for a $41m series B and a $108m series C in 2015, the latter of which was led by Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA).
KIA, Iconiq, K1 and investment firm Gulf Islamic Investments subsequently provided $88m for the company in a September 2016 series D round that valued it at $1.3bn according to Forbes.
Kirk Krappe, chairman and chief executive of Apttus, said: “The Salesforce Platform has been a foundation empowering Apttus to innovate and drive towards continued customer success.
“Over the past 10 years, Salesforce has been a valuable partner and investor in Apttus, and we look forward to continuing to work together to drive continued innovation in the Quote-to-Cash category.”
– Image courtesy of Apttus Corporation