Crunchbase<\/a>.<\/p>\nInsideSales is built on an artificial intelligence platform that uses Neuralytics, which the company describes a \u00a0\u201ca predictive and prescriptive self-learning engine.\u201d The idea is to give sales personnel information on when and how to contact a prospect with the goal, of course, of increasing sales.<\/p>\n
While Elkington was clearly pleased by the cash infusion, he seemed most enamored by the strategic investors. He said he wasn\u2019t really looking for additional money, but while visiting Ireland, which has an active tech ecosystem, the government introduced him to a number of key stakeholders. The more they talked, the more it looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and the round began to take shape.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the company had also been working on deepening their partnership with Microsoft, which invested in the 2015 round (along with rival Salesforce). Lo and behold, before they knew it, Microsoft\u00a0wanted to invest in this round too. Polaris began to pull the whole thing together and when all was said and done, they had a cool $50 million.<\/p>\n
The Irish government investment has the potential to give them entree into Europe, a\u00a0prospect that intrigued Elkington. The company is also getting access to an untapped pool of data scientists in Ireland\u2019s academic institutions along with sales talent and the ability to build a strong presence\u00a0in Ireland.<\/p>\n
As for Microsoft, which is coming back for a second round, he says they can open a lot of doors for a startup like\u00a0InsideSales, providing\u00a0them with access to Microsoft\u2019s product, go-to-market and partner and alliance teams, giving his company the kind of reach it could never get on its own.<\/p>\n
The obvious question is where does the company go from here? Elkington balked at the idea of an acquisition by Microsoft or anyone else, although the deepening partnership certainly begged the question. He also downplayed the idea of an IPO, but said that obviously at some point he wants to return the investment of his employees and investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want something that creates value in the economy. We are not bent around the axle about going public, but we want to make sure people who have trusted us [will be] rewarded for that,\u201d he said. That would suggest some sort of exit, at\u00a0some point down the road.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Featured Image: Caiaimage\/Martin Barraud\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/Q84NEkbv-GQ\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
InsideSales, a predictive analytics platform which helps salespeople focus on finding and engaging\u00a0prospects at the right time and in the right way, announced a $50 million round today with a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/73c64_gettyimages-530685725.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"screenshot-2017-01-17-17-14-00\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/23105_screenshot-2017-01-17-17-14-00.png?resize=640%2C232&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n