OUTPLAY, A SALES ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM RAISES USD 7.3M IN SERIES A FUNDING ROUND LED BY SEQUOIA CAPITAL INDIA

Traditional sales engagement has ever so involved an emotional & monetary exchange between sales representatives and their prospects/customers. Although the outbound sales process has largely remained dependent on high-volume sales tactics to drive revenue that is not scalable, a fear that looms over automating sales engagement using software lacks personalization. Not relying on a data-driven approach, the traditional outbound sales model fails to capitalize on the time invested in converting prospects. Analyzing this gap, Laxman Papineni & Ram Papineni, launched Outplay in 2019, which is a multi-channel sales engagement platform that aims to bring scalability & predictability to outbound sales.  Boasting features such as dynamic sequencing, magic outbound chat, and detailed analytics helps the sales team to plan, execute, track, measure & optimize interactions between companies & prospects, Outplay gives sales development representatives (SDRs) and business development representatives (BDRs) the right signals so they only work on the warmest prospects across multiple channels like email, phone, SMS, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Chat. 

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, this startup has raised USD 7.3 million in its Series A funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India. Having invested $2 million in March this year through an early-stage seed round, Sequoia’s additional investment is a testament to the fact that sales engagement is a space that is on the rise. Speaking on the investment, Laxman Papineni, CEO, Outplay said, “Outbound sales teams are truly the dark horse of the sales organization – the targets are high, but the methods aren’t scientific. Outplay is committed to making outbound outreach data-driven, so that sales teams are talking only to the warmest prospects at any given point across multiple channels, optimizing time and resources. The continued partnership with Sequoia Capital India is a testament to the fact that the sales engagement space, which is poised to be a $5.59B market by 2023, is a huge opportunity for Outplay.” A multi-channel outreach plan & a unique combination of automation and personalization allows the sales managers to track & create data-backed sales playbooks which can be used to mentor team members & help achieve sales targets. With a 4x growth in revenue & a 3x increase in team strength since the seed round, the current proceeds are intended to be utilized towards expanding expertise in technology and talent acquisition. Having expanded their customer base across 50 countries, ranging across verticals such as marketing & advertising, IT, computer software, and recruitment, the platform allows for an integration with customer relationship management platforms like Salesforce and Pipedrive, giving salespeople a new interface that includes productivity and automation tools to cut the time they spend on administrative tasks & tracking the feasibility of their sales campaign. 

Further, Harshjit Sethi, Principal, Sequoia India speaking of the investment commented, “We continue to be very excited by Outplay’s mission of making every sales rep perform like the best rep on the team. Outbound sales needs are evolving rapidly and reps now need personalized, automated, and contextual tools to drive sales which Outplay is successfully enabling. Sales reps spend an average of four hours per day on Outplay,  demonstrating the effectiveness of the product which has category-leading customer reviews. Additionally, rapid digitization due to COVID has been a significant accelerant for the business and we believe these tailwinds will continue as outbound sales become more digital.” With both of its biggest competitors, i.e., Outreach & SalesLoft joining the unicorn club with their latest rounds, the future looks bright for this space.