Insightly raises $25M in Series C funding for business expansion

by Abhinav Mohapatra

Online customer relationship management (CRM) application, Insightly, has raised $25 million in Series C investment led by Scott Bommer, venture investor and former founder of SAB Capital, along with existing investors Emergence Capital Partners, Cloud Apps Capital Partners and Sozo Ventures. The total investment that Insightly stands on is a little above $40 million considering it had raised $16 million in its previous investment rounds. The company claims to use this money to build a direct sales team and grow its larger business plans.

“Insightly is the leading CRM for small and mid-sized businesses, and this latest round of financing will allow the company to accelerate its growth and expand its market leadership position within the space. I was attracted to Insightly’s compelling product offering and strong market position, and its opportunity for future growth. Similar to online accounting software, Xero, and project management software, Atlassian, Insightly is at the forefront of defining cloud-based capabilities for SMBs globally,” says Bommer.

The company’s aim has always revolved around giving clients competitive functionality of enterprise CRMs without the complexity that often comes with legacy platforms. This funding will make sure that the company keeps adding further integration capabilities which will catalyze sales growth for businesses and increase efficiency and organization, while remaining committed to its mission of being an easy to use CRM.

Anthony Smith, CEO and Founder, Insightly, says, “Despite the current market environment, there was significant interest from investors to contribute to this round of funding, which is a testament to the strength of Insightly’s product. Over the past year, we have doubled both the size of our team and our revenue. We also surpassed the 1-million-user mark, with significant growth in the advertising, marketing and consulting verticals. This funding round will fuel strategic initiatives and product improvements that will extend Insightly’s reach and usability to help businesses of all sizes succeed.”

Insightly has also taken Mark Ripley on-board as the Vice President of Sales to further support the company’s expansion plans. Ripley is bringing 15 years of sales leadership in SaaS to the table. He has worked with SaaS companies like New Relic, Birst, Mindjet and WebEx.

Matt Holleran, General Partner, Cloud Apps Capital Partners, says, “Insightly is well positioned as a leader in Customer Relationship Management from a global perspective, available in 7 languages and 200 countries. We are pleased to be part of its expansion into delivering easy to use CRM to the 25-250 employee customer segment.”

About three years back Insightly had raised $10 million to integrate its CRM service with Gmail, Office 365, and Outlook among other services. Last year, the company had announced integration with QuickBooks Online, Dropbox and Box to increase functionality for small businesses; the new integrations were a move to improve mobile accessibility and user productivity. Just 20 days back the company also integrated with PandaDoc for users to create and track proposals, quotes and sales collaterals.

“Since Emergence first invested in Insightly in 2012, we’ve seen a notable market shift toward cloud solutions that seamlessly combine web and mobile applications. Insightly has not only met this need, it has created a CRM solution that is at the heart of hundreds of thousands of small and growing businesses, says Gordon Ritter, Founder and General Partner, Emergence Capital Partners.