Account Based Sales Development (ABSD) vendor Outreach announced a $30 million Series C round led by DJF.  With the capital injection, Outreach raised its total funding to $60 million.  The valuation was not disclosed.  Other round participants included Four Rivers Group and existing investors Mayfield, MHS Capital, Microsoft Ventures and Trinity Ventures.  Funds will be deployed towards additional product development, staffing, and marketing.

“The future of selling will be machines helping sales reps by removing the barriers of what bogs them down and empowering them to do their best work,” blogged Outreach CEO Manny Medina.  “This round gives us the ability to make the required investments in machine learning and natural language processing. We’re doubling down in an area many in the market are talking about, but have yet to make a reality. With this investment, Outreach will continue to innovate to improve the day-to-day life of sales reps and their impact on the companies and communities they serve.”

Outreach helps automate, track, and analyze sales rep tasks across multiple communication channels including email, phone, and LinkedIn.  Activities are tracked and synchronized with Salesforce, Gmail, and Exchange.  Outreach supports over 1,200 sales teams including sales organizations at Adobe, Pandora, eBay, Marketo, and Zillow.  The firm supports the efforts of over 15,000 sales reps.

Like many industries, technology is transforming sales from an art to a science.  Sales is no longer about following up on inbound leads and hunting for a few big deals. It is about sales excellence – predictably executing the right selling activities at the right time.

• Outreach CEO Manny Medina

The firm, founded in 2014, doubled its employment over the past year to 170.  Outreach is looking to grow its product and engineering group from thirty to fifty staff before the end of 2017.  Outreach is based in Seattle with offices in San Francisco and State College, PA.  They recently opened an office in Tampa, Florida which has hired some of the talent from recently shuttered competitor KiteDesk.

While I have not heard the specific rationale behind the KiteDesk shutdown, a former CxO at the firm suggested that they lacked the capital to compete against well-funded competitors such as Outreach and SalesLoft.

Along with the funding round, Outreach announced that DFJ Growth Partner Sam Fort has been added to Outreach’s Board. “The opportunity for a platform that simplifies and automates the sales process is massive and we are thrilled to have Outreach join our portfolio,” said Fort.