Slintel Inc., a marketing intelligence startup focused on predictive sales insights, has raised $1.5 million (Rs 10.6 crore at current exchange rate) in a seed funding round led by Bengaluru-based Stellaris Venture Partners.
Other investors that participated in the seed round include Accel and Powerhouse Ventures, Slintel said in a statement. Engage.Social founder Anand Jagannathan and Helion Ventures senior managing director Ashish Gupta also participated, according to The Economic Times.
The California-based startup said that it will use the capital it has raised to grow its own marketing and sales operations and will also make key hires for the former in the United States.
Slintel co-founder and chief executive officer Deepak Anchala said the company analyses the buying of products by firms and predicts what purchases will come next. “Slintel captures technographic information for 16 million companies -- data that refreshes each week, and our algorithms identify signatures for 45,000 products -- a number that is increasing every day,” he said.
Stellaris partner Alok Goyal said the firm was confident in its investment in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm because of its operational execution and Anchala’s long-term vision.
According to its website, the company provides intelligence on buying behaviour, spend and renewal patterns. It also provides analysis on key sales decision-makers and makes predictions on what internal and external factors will trigger a buying decision. Slintel – which operates offices in Mountain View and Bengaluru – is also looking to deepen its presence in the US market.
Stellaris is an early-stage investment firm started by former Helion Venture Partners executives Alok Goyal, Ritesh Banglani and Rahul Chowdhri.
It marked the first close of its debut fund at $50 million in February 2017 and counts technology giants Cisco and Infosys among its limited partners. Companies in its portfolio include personal care brand Mamaearth, know-your-customer solutions startup Signzy and scooter-sharing startup Vogo.
Deals in the SaaS space
The SaaS segment across industries has been buzzing with investor activity in recent months. The rapid progress of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing and branches of machine learning has sprung up a number of startups using the SaaS model.
Tookitaki, a firm that develops artificial intelligence-based sustainable compliance solutions for financial institutions, closed its Series A funding round last month, raising $19.2 million (Rs 137.4 crore) from investors including Viola Fintech and global venture firm SIG Asia Investment.
That month, cloud-based software firm Freshworks Inc. raised $150 million (Rs 1,081 crore) in a Series H round led by Sequoia Capital, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) and Accel, which is the company’s first investor.
In September, enterprise human resources management platform Darwinbox raised $15 million in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia India. Similarly, multinational payments technology company Mastercard Inc. invested in digital identity solutions-focused startup Syntizen.
