[Funding Alert] Sequoia India Backs AI-Based Sales Solutions Provider In $8 Mln Round Bengaluru-based Salesken.ai said the new funds would be used for further development of its AI-based conversation intelligence platform and for expansion across the Asia Pacific and North America markets.

Salesken.ai, a start-up that provides artificial intelligence-based tools to improve sales, has raised $8 million in a Series A round from Sequoia India. The round also saw existing investors such as Unitus Venture and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation making a partial exit.

Founded in 2019 by Sreeraman Vaidyanathan and Surga Thilakan, Salesken's proprietary technology uses machine learning and data science tools to learn successful sales tactics and help teams with real-time intelligence to land more deals.

The Bengaluru-based company said the new funds would be used for further development of its AI-based conversation intelligence platform and for expansion across the Asia Pacific and North America markets.

Why Salesken

"Inside sales is a rapidly growing industry worldwide with nearly 48 per cent of all sales teams now selling products over the phone or web conferencing tools," Salesken said in a statement, adding that the inside sales industry employs 20 million people across the world.

Sales teams that use Salesken.ai receive intelligence on various aspects of the sales pitch, from lead qualification to navigating pricing discussions. Even customer sentiment can be gauged during the conversation using the platform. Apart from that, the tool allows leaders to have complete visibility within their teams through qualitative analytics on knowledge or skill gaps that may exist in some.

"Companies squander a third of their customer acquisition costs on preventable lead losses. They also face the unpredictability of sales outcomes and an inability to replicate success at scale," said co-founder and chief executive officer Thilakan, in a statement.

According to the company, the idea of Salesken came from the need to shift from solving the sales skill gap problem from a behavioral science-led training approach to a data science-driven product.

"Inside sales has many unique management, training, and scaling challenges, but is often the most productive form of sales for companies across a range of industries. Salesken enables higher productivity for this segment of users and brings a step function in their performance," said Shailesh Lakhani, managing director at Sequoia Capital India.