Atlanta’s Salesloft received a growth investment from Vista Equity Partners, bumping up its valuation to $2.3 billion, according to a Dec. 23 announcement.
Why it matters: CEO Kyle Porter founded the sales engagement platform in 2011 in the Atlanta Ventures studio, an incubation program from serial entrepreneur David Cummings that helps founders ideate and launch businesses. Salesloft’s growth represents how successful Atlanta entrepreneurs breed more success for the next generation of local startups. Salesloft already has offices globally and more than 500 employees. This investment round could propel that momentum, prompting increased hiring and capturing more of the sales engagement market.
About the company: Salesloft helps customers, which include tech giants such as Google, Slack and Shopify, find and close sales through a virtual sales engagement system. The platform includes features to forecast deals, facilitate phone and text conversations and analyze sales data. Salesloft is headquartered in Midtown and has locations in Guadalajara, Mexico; Indianapolis; London; New York and San Francisco. The company says it passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue this past summer.
Inside the deal: Vista Equity Partners is a global investment firm with $86 billion in assets under management and a focus on enterprise software. Salesloft last raised an investment round about a year ago, surpassing a $1 billion valuation with a $100 million round led by Owl Rock Capital. The company declined to disclose the investment amount of this deal, which increased its valuation by about $1.2 billion. A Vista representative will join Salesloft’s board.
What’s next: Salesloft plans to enhance product innovation and expand into new geographic markets, with a focus on Europe. The company recently launched artificial intelligence-driven capabilities and new integrated workflows to connect its products. Salesloft claims to be the first sales engagement platform in the European market and launched a data center in Germany to accommodate its growth in the region.
