Seattle-based sales software company Highspot has launched operations in Hyderabad, India.
The company announced the expansion on Monday and said longtime Microsoft veteran Gurpreet Singh Pall will serve as chief operating officer at Highspot India. Highspot launched operations in Canada in January with an office in Vancouver and now has six international offices in addition to its Seattle headquarters.
"We're writing a new chapter in the Highspot story with the launch of product and engineering in India," Bhrighu Sareen, president of product and engineering at Highspot, said in a release.
In addition to Vancouver and Hyderabad, Highspot has international offices in London, Munich, Paris and Sydney. In a news release, Highspot said the team in India will help build new Highspot features.
A spokesperson said Pall is the first Highspot India employee but the company plans to grow the team, including specifically product and engineering employees, over time.
The spokesperson said the company has a small space in Hyderabad that it can grow as needed, adding that while Highspot didn't have an office in India before this, it did have users in the country through its clients.
Pall spent 28 years at Microsoft before leaving in 2018. According to his LinkedIn page, his most recent role was vice president of the Bing products global ecosystem. Highspot said in the release he has been advising startups and venture capital firms since leaving Microsoft.
In January, Sareen told the Business Journal the company had about 10 employees working in Canada but planned to have over 40 as soon as possible, the majority of whom would be based in British Columbia. The company was using a coworking space in Vancouver to start.
Highspot was founded in 2012. The company's software helps sales reps with content management, training and guidance. Its clients include Aetna, FedEx and Siemens. Highspot raised $200 million in 2021 and $248 million at the start of 2022, pushing its value to $3.5 billion. This year, however, the company laid off about 10% of its staff in February and an additional 15% in June.
Highspot in January confirmed it had downsized its physical footprint at its Belltown headquarters at 2211 Elliott Ave. through subleases. It still had significant space on two floors, down from five floors at the start of 2022.
"Highspot is solving the age-old problem of empowering revenue teams," Pall said in the release. "India produces some of the world's best engineering talent — expanding Highspot's product and engineering operations in India will open a new world of possibilities."
Editor's note: The story has been updated to provide additional details about the company's office in India.
