MarTechInvestment

International sales intelligence provider Cognism has secured around £64 million in funding led by new investor Viking Global Investors.

They are joined by fellow new investor Blue Cloud Ventures and follow-on investors AXA Venture Partners, Swisscom Ventures and Volution.

The capital will aid the company’s ambitious plans to expand across Europe and strengthen its position in the US through organic growth and acquisitions.

In 2021, Cognism opened a US office in Boston, led by new VP sales, Mark Bedard, previously of ZoomInfo, and welcomed industry veteran, Phil Garlick, to its board of directors.

Recent months have seen significant investment in new products and partnerships. The year also saw the company launch Diamond Data, which it says provides the most accurate, GDPR and CCPA compliant phone-verified contacts for business development teams internationally.

“No other software company offers a truly global sales intelligence platform like Cognism. By pairing our premium quality contact data with advanced contextual data points like technographics and buyer intent signals, we help modern revenue teams connect with confidence and exceed targets,” said CEO James Isilay. 

“We enable them to  build a meaningful connection with their next best customer in the most predictable, efficient, and cost-effective way. 

 

“We’re delighted to welcome Viking Global Investors as our new lead investor. The funding will help us empower many more businesses with international sales intelligence over the coming years, setting a new standard in data quality and compliance. 

“It will accelerate our growth and global expansion plans as the leading provider of intelligent B2B sales data.”

‘It took us 15 years to discover the joy of SaaS’

The firm joined TechNation’s Future Fifty programme last year and provides its solutions to more than 1,000 companies worldwide.  

Its workforce is more than 250 and based in seven countries: the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Croatia, Macedonia and Germany.

 

George Mckenna, head of cloud sales at Ultima, added: “The sales managers used to make 100-150 calls per day. Now they can achieve their targets by making 30 calls. 

“Our sales cycle is typically 6-8 months long. Using Cognism, we saw ROI in 8 weeks from intent data and direct dials.”