InsideSales, the US-based operator of an online sales platform, completed a $50m series E round on Wednesday led by venture capital firm Polaris Partners that included software supplier Microsoft.
Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), an $8.1bn vehicle managed by the Irish government, also invested, as did QuestMark Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Hummer Winblad, US Venture Partners (USVP), Epic Ventures and Zetta Ventures.
InsideSales has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-equipped sales engine called Neuralytics that offers features such as predictive sales communications, engagement tracking, forecasting and sales staff motivation.
Following ISIF’s investment, InsideSales will open its European headquarters in Ireland to launch an international expansion.
The company will also collaborate with Microsoft to develop versions of its platform that will integrate with the corporate’s Azure cloud services software and operate on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 customer relationship management platform.
Jujhar Singh, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics 365, said: “As a close partner, it’s exciting to imagine the potential of InsideSales paired with Microsoft technology.
“With even greater focus on AI in our day-to-day lives, we’re excited to help InsideSales deliver its intelligent solutions to more workplaces through the Dynamics 365 platform.”
Microsoft previously took part in a $60m series D round in early 2015 that included Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of cloud computing firm Salesforce, as well as Polaris Partners, KPCB, Hummer Winblad, USVP and Zetta, and which valued InsideSales at $1.5bn.
Polaris had earlier led the company’s $100m series C round in 2014, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, KPCB, Epic, Hummer Winblad, USVP, Zetta and Acadia Woods. InsideSales has now raised in excess of $250m altogether.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing.