Drift, the world’s leading conversational marketing and sales platform, today announced it has raised $60 million in Series C financing led by Sequoia Capital, bringing its total funding to $107 million. This latest funding round comes on the heels of the strongest quarter in company history, with revenue up more than 10x compared to the first quarter of 2017. Previous investors CRV and General Catalyst also participated in the round.
Founded in 2014, Drift is the new way that businesses buy from businesses. Replacing the traditional B2B marketing and sales process that can take weeks and frustrate potential customers, Drift connects businesses with the best leads in real-time, 24/7, and helps them have real conversations with qualified buyers. This approach provides a modern buying experience, can generate more qualified leads, and dramatically accelerate the sales cycle.
“For companies that have sales and marketing teams, Drift is the fastest path to revenue,” said Drift CEO David Cancel. “A sale doesn’t get made until a conversation happens, so with Conversational Marketing we remove the roadblocks and hurdles that can get in the way of someone talking to your sales team. This creates a better customer experience, makes it easier for people to buy, and creates a faster path to revenue. Drift is growing faster than B2B unicorns such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, and Zendesk were at this stage.”
There are now over 100,000 businesses using Drift from around the world, including companies like AdRoll, Cornerstone OnDemand, Dyn, InVision, MongoDB, Vidyard, and Zuora.
“We are lucky to work with incredible companies at Sequoia, and Drift has some of the best product/market fit we’ve ever seen,” said Pat Grady, partner at Sequoia. “The secret behind Drift’s hypergrowth is really no secret at all: history tells us that whoever gets closest to the customer wins, and David, Elias, and the team are obsessed with making their customers successful.”
“Drift is an incredible platform. The company is experiencing unprecedented growth and we are privileged to be their partners in this journey,” said Izhar Armony, general partner at CRV. “What David, Elias, and the team are building isn’t merely a great product but a movement.”
“We have been investors in Drift from the beginning,” said Larry Bohn, managing director at General Catalyst. “It’s incredible to see the team that David and Elias are building. They're writing the blueprint for how modern companies will market and sell into the next decade and beyond. We are proud to fully support this round.”
With over $90 million in cash now in the bank, Drift aims to build the Amazon for businesses.
“Amazon revolutionized how people buy with the one-click buying experience, and that’s what we all expect online today,” said Cancel. “But when it comes to B2B, the buying process is painful. Companies force buyers to fill out forms and jump through so many hoops just to talk to them, despite the fact that most buying decisions have already been made by the time someone comes to your website. We’re on a mission to build the most customer-centric company in the world and make B2B buying as easy as buying from Amazon.”
Doubling down on the company’s commitment to build a pillar company in Boston and a brand that will operate around the world, Drift also unveiled plans to quadruple office space with new locations in both Boston and San Francisco.
To learn more about this announcement, please visit: https://blog.drift.com/series-c
About Drift
Drift is the new way businesses buy from businesses. With its quickly evolving set of tools and playbooks, Drift is the world’s leading conversational marketing and sales platform. Over 100,000 businesses use Drift today to provide a modern buying experience for potential customers, generate more qualified leads, and dramatically accelerate the sales cycle. Based in Boston, Drift was founded by serial marketing technology entrepreneurs David Cancel and Elias Torres, and is backed by leading venture capitalists including CRV, General Catalyst, and Sequoia. Learn more at drift.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180417005496/en/
Contacts:
Dave Gerhardt
VP of Marketing
dg@drift.com
