Gong.io, a conversation intelligence platform, has raised $40 million in Series B funding from a cluster of venture capital firms for ongoing development of its AI-driven CRM intelligence technology.
The venture’s continued interest to Silicon Valley is testament to the conviction among many in the CRM world that AI holds the key to the transformation of CRM technology.
The Series B funding was led by Battery Ventures, with Battery General Partner Dharmesh Thakker joining Gong’s board of directors. Existing investors in Gong also participated in the round, including Northwest Venture Partners, Shlomo Kramer, Wing Venture Capital, NextWorld Capital and Cisco Investments.
“We believe Gong’s technology is the most significant development for sales since the invention of CRM in the previous century,†explains Amit Bendov, CEO at Gong. “Before Gong, companies were blind to customer realities and were managing with no real data.â€
Bendov previously worked in senior jobs at other companies that have been backed by Battery, among them Panaya and SiSense.
He believes Gong’s success lies in its ability to add much-needed intelligence currently missing from CRM systems. He says the new funds will be used to invest heavily in engineering to fulfill the company’s long-term product vision as well as expanding support, sales and marketing.
Gong uses AI to turn phone, video and text conversations into what it calls “mission critical information†that companies can use to coach customer-facing teams, increase win rates and improve strategic decision making.
Like other AI packages, it becomes smarter as it analyzes more data, and refines its understanding of a company’s customer base on a deal-by-deal basis. It uses voice-enabled technology similar to Alexa.
Gong is already in use with a number of fast-growing firms, among them LinkedIn, GE, Drift and ZipRecruiter. It provides these companies with a realistic picture of what their personnel are doing, where they’re succeeding and where they’re failing.
It can carry out analysis of sales activity at a granular level, for instance the specific terms used in sales pitches and the structure of calls. Successful tactics can then be replicated across the business.
Sales leaders can also use this intelligence to evaluate where their time is best spent – and where help is required, for example when they need to step in to save a deal.
Ultimately, Gong is trying to aid companies to harness the 95% of sales conversation data currently lost while also making more effective use of the remaining 5%.
Key Takeaways:
- A $40 million Series B funding round for voice-enabled AI technology firm Gong has again demonstrated the faith Silicon Valley has in AI as the next great frontier in CRM technology.
- Gong, like its competitors, provides clients with a far better understanding of their sales data, including new sales calls, helping them to train their personnel and maximize the time of senior sales leaders.
- As an AI-based system, Gong learns from the successful activity of sales teams and will teach itself based on the successes and failures of an individual company.