Salesken Raises $8 Million In Series A Funding To Enable Improved Sales Performance With AI

Salesken.ai, a Bengaluru-headquartered start-up, said that it has raised $8 million — approximately ₹ 56.8 crores, in Series A funding from Sequoia India for enabling improved sales performance with the use of artificial intelligence and conversation analytics. The funds will be used for further development of Salesken''s AI-based conversation intelligence platform — Salesken.ai, and for expanding across the Asia Pacific and North America markets, the company said.

Through this financing, Salesken has paved the way for a partial exit for its investors Unitus Ventures and Michael Susan Dell Foundation.

Inside sales is a rapidly growing industry worldwide, with nearly 48% of all sales teams now selling products over the phone or web conferencing tools. The inside sales industry employs over 20 million people globally, and Salesken helps these teams with real-time intelligence during their sales conversations to help them win more deals.

Sales teams using Salesken.ai receive intelligence on various aspects of the sales pitch, from lead qualification to navigating pricing discussions. They can also gauge the sentiments of their customers during the conversation.

Salesken said its proprietary technology does this by using machine learning and data science tools to learn successful sales tactics used by top-performing salespeople and the best-selling practices across industries.

The tool also provides sales leaders with unparalleled visibility via qualitative analytics on knowledge or skill gaps within their teams.

"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," Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India LLP, said in a statement.

The founders of Salesken, Sreeraman Vaidyanathan and Surga Thilakan bring domain expertise and insights into the skill gaps of sales teams from having coached over 20,000 sales executives.