New niches continue to be discovered and developed when it comes to software and layering in AI further amps up growth potential. The niche in favor these days is revenue operations. With many software companies and board discussions so focused on the method and manner in which revenues are monitored and managed, it is only fitting that an advanced technological solution would arise. Recently Sapphire Ventures announced its lead role in the $60 million backing of Clari.
Clari, founded in 2012 and based out of San Francisco, has now raised over $135 million since inception. Its platform technology is used by hundreds of sales, marketing and customer success teams at leading B2B companies including Qualtrics, Lenovo, Adobe, Dropbox, and Okta to drive pipeline, improve productivity, forecast revenue and reduce churn. The company harvests and analyzes activity signals from dozens of different business systems, including email, calendar, CRM, marketing automation, and others to transform revenue operations to be more connected, efficient, and predictable.
According to Clari’s CEO Andy Byrne, "Revenue isn't just an outcome at the end of a 90-day quarter, it's a dynamic, moment-to-moment business process." He continues, "With AI and automation, we're helping our customers run their revenue process with the same level of transparency and rigor that they expect from any other critical business process, like manufacturing, logistics, or finance. The resulting impact on their business is transformational."
Sapphire Ventures’ President and Managing Director Jai Das is bullish on their investment, "Growth and retention are the lifeblood of Chief Revenue Officers," further adding, "CROs from many of our portfolio companies depend on Clari to manage their end-to-end revenue process to drive efficiency and predictability. What Clari's AI is calling has become an integral part of most boards' parlance, since revenue forecasts are discussed so much. Increasingly Clari is being used by the broader revenue operations team, including marketing and customer success, to not only see how leads are converting to customers, but also to predict which customers will churn and which are primed for upsells. I believe Clari is an indispensable platform for revenue operations teams in every enterprise."
Sapphire Ventures led the round with participation from new investor Madrona Venture Group and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Tenaya Capital.
