• About & Contact Us
  • SEO Community

Ulancer.com

    • Latest Stories

      What is new?

    • Delivery robotics company Marble raises $10 million, with plans to move beyond food

      April 25, 2018

    • Four MIT students have launched DeepBench to democratize access to expert networks

      April 24, 2018

  • News
  • How to’s
  • Writing
  • Startups
  • Jobs
  • More
    • CMS Tools
    • APPS
    • Web Resources
      • Advertising
      • Firefox
      • Scripts
      • Tools

Drift raises $60 million to be an Amazon for businesses

  • by Ulancer Contributor
  • In Startups
  • — 17 Apr, 2018

When you’re raising venture capital, it helps if you’ve had “exits.” In other words, if your company has been acquired or you’ve taken one public, investors are more inclined to take a bet on anything you do.

Boston -based serial entrepreneur David Cancel has sold not just one, but four companies.  And after a few years running product for HubSpot, he’s in the midst of building number five.

That startup, Drift, managed to raise $47 million in its first three years. Now it’s announcing another $60 million led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investors CRV and General Catalyst. The valuation is undisclosed.

So what is Drift? It’s “changing the way businesses buy from businesses,” said Cancel. He wants to eventually build an alternative to Amazon to make it easier for companies to make large orders.

Currently, Drift subscribers can use chatbots to help turn web visits into sales. It has 100,000 clients including Zenefits, MongoDB, Zuora and AdRoll.

Drift “turns those conversations into customers,” Cancel explained. He said that technology is comparable to what is commonly used for customer service. It’s the “same messaging that was used for support, but used in the sales context.”

In the long-run, Cancel says he hopes Drift will expand its offerings to compete with Salesforce.

The company wouldn’t disclose revenue, but says it is ten times better compared to whatever it was in the past year. And it’s on track to grow another five times this year. This, of course, means little without hard numbers.

Yet we’re told that the new round means that Drift will have $90 million in the bank. It plans to use some of the funding to make acquisitions in voice and video technology. Drift also plans to expand its teams in both Boston and San Francisco, with new offices for both. The company presently has 130 employees.

 


News source

You might also like...

  • Israeli serial startup stars of blockchain tech return with QEDit, a zero-knowledge proof diligence tool 4 Dec, 2017
  • PhoneWagon raises $1.2M to track when marketing campaigns lead to phone calls 8 Dec, 2017
  • 82Labs raises $8M to create a better hangover recovery drink 2 Apr, 2018
  • Sendbird raises another $16M to help developers add chat functions to a service 19 Dec, 2017
  • Previous story LawGeex raises $12M for its AI-powered contract review technology
  • Next story Guestfriend automates chatbot creation for restaurants
  • RSS
    Receive Freebies & Latest Posts Directly To Your Email - it's Free!

    • Recent Posts
    • Most Popular
    • Comments
    • VRsFQh1hR7gDelivery robotics company Marble raises $10 million, with plans to move beyond foodApril 25, 2018
    • deepbench-founders.pngFour MIT students have launched DeepBench to democratize access to expert networksApril 24, 2018
    • g4wTOd8eNOYVacation rental management service Guesty raises $19.75MApril 24, 2018
    • 1cumulative-seed-capital-vs-size-of-series-a.pngNew numbers illustrate how fast fundraising has changed for young startupsApril 24, 2018
    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
    • wptheme2A Collection of Free WordPress ThemesJuly 11, 2010
    • Troy on:Useful List of Best Magento SEO Extensions For E-commerce Store
    • Роман Оныщук on:  15 Most Popular Cloud Applications and SaaS Services for Business
    • Yemli Lala on:How to Outsource Your Freelance Blogging Work with Integrity
    • Sammy May on:Chip, the chatbot savings app, raises over £1M in crowdfunding with plans to apply for a banking license
  • Staff Picks

    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
  • Recent Posts

    • Delivery robotics company Marble raises $10 million, with plans to move beyond food
    • Four MIT students have launched DeepBench to democratize access to expert networks
  • Search Our Blog

  • Ulancer is an insightful freelance blog and resource site. We provide intuitive articles that cover Photoshop tutorials, time-saving management tips covering a broad range of topics. We also have an active freelance community forum, there you can meet other freelancers that share your common interest, socialize and chat about freelance trending news as the occurred.

© Copyright 2013 Ulancer.