Welcome back to Demand Gen Report‘s blog series: Buzzworthy B2B. We’ve spent the past month watching the latest news and monitoring the hottest trends in the industry to curate the top research statistics, financial news, personnel changes and more to keep you in the loop. Check out all the latest happenings in the B2B space throughout July 2021 below!
Movers & Shakers
July was a busy month for the C-suite, with many companies bringing in fresh faces to facilitate their leadership, marketing, sales and go-to-market (GTM) strategies!
Clearbit Announces Derek Schlicker As New CFO
B2B data tools provider Clearbit recently appointed Derek Schlicker as its new Chief Financial Officer. With his 15 years of SaaS technology experience, Schlicker will be responsible for scaling Clearbit’s SaaS operations while accelerating customer growth across multiple B2B segments.
Keyavi Appoints Shai GudayAs New Chief Product Officer
Keyavi, a cybersecurity technology provider, announced that Shai Guday will take on the role of Chief Product Officer,and will be responsible for driving product development and platform growth. Guday brings more than 35 years of program management to his new role, spending more than 20 years at Microsoft, innovating its cloud and data technology.
Melio Appoints New Chief People Officer
Melio, a B2B payments company, announced Sharon Bachar will be joining the company as Chief People Officer. Bachar will leverage her 17 years of HR experience to help Melio build up the company’s leadership team and oversee its diversity and inclusion initiatives.
LiveRamp Announces Senior Leadership Appointments
Global data connectivity platform LiveRamp promoted Diego Panama toChief Commercial Officer and Grant Ries to VP of Emerging Markets. With his experience as VP of Revenue, Panama will manage the company‘s sales organization, customer success, channel partnerships and sales strategy. Ries will use his data management and marketplace expertise to manage LiveRamp advertising in new B2B markets.
Money Makers
This month saw many companies raising additional funds to fuel their product innovation, with some hoping to create more engaging customer experiences, and others planning to expand into the global market.
Paystand Raises $50M Series C Funding
B2B payment platform Paystand recently raised $50 million in a Series C funding round in partnership with NewView Capital. With the new capital, Paystand plans to accelerate its plans to build a more customer-centric “payments-as-a-service” model.
Duda Raises $50M In Series D Financing Round
Duda, a B2B website building platform, closed its Series D financing round with help from Susquehanna Growth Equity and Vintage Investment Partners, raising $50 million and bringing its total funding to $100 million. Duda plans to invest the funding into product development, and accelerating new feature and product development.
Impact Announces $1.5B Valuation To Accelerate Global Growth & Power Productive Partnerships
Impact, a B2B partnership management platform, raised $150 million in growth funding with investment from Qatar Investment Authority and Providence Public. With the additional funding, Impact will accelerate its investment in partnership automation, increase channel partnerships and scaleGTM initiatives for global B2B brands and agencies.
Orum Raises $25M To Automate & Scale Inside Sales Teams
Orum, a sales acceleration platform, closed its Series A funding round with Capital Ventures, raising $25 million and bringing its total raised funds to $29 million. Orum will use the additional capital to expands its partnerships with sales engagement platforms to help its users build successful outbound sales workflows.
Heads Up
B2B companies made some big moves in July, with many expanding their brands to continue to transform the industry on a global scale.
Cvent Merges WithDragoneer Investment Group, Aims To Go Public
Cvent, an event management software company, announced that it would be merging with growth-oriented investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group. This move will allow the company to expand its research and GTM initiatives and innovate its event solution features. The company also announced that the merger would allow them to go public on Nasdaq at a$5.3 billion valuation.
Bizzabo Opens New Office In London To Expand European Operations
Earlier in July, event management platform Bizzabo unveiled its new office in London, building on the company’s goal of expanding its event experiences management services to the European market. Bizzabo hopes that the new London office will serve as a hub for its marketing, sales and customer service teams in Europe, with a focus on delivering SaaS technology for European event marketers.
Demand Science Acquires Airborne App, Inc.
Global revenue intelligence platform Demand Science acquired Toronto-based sales engagement and enablement software Airborne to enhance its global B2B data and intelligence solutions. Demand Science will integrate Airborne into its data and intelligence offering, providing its users with sales technology to structure day-to-day workflows, manage buyer relationships and automate common sales tasks.
ZoomInfo Acquires Conversation Intelligence Leader Chorus.ai
ZoomInfo, a business contact and intelligence platform, agreed to acquire conversational intelligence platform Chorus.ai. This will allow ZoomInfo users to leverage customer call, email and meeting data insights to create more engaging buyer-seller conversations and enhance internal workflows.
Standout Stats
Many B2B marketers are looking into their digital initiatives to uncover what’s working and what areas need improvement, and discovered some interesting insights, including:
- 86% of marketers are prioritizing marketing measurement and attribution, with 39% believing their attribution systems need improvement;
- 80% of sales reps do not understand sales margins, which lead to significant revenue loss;
- 60% of marketing organizations cite the lack of integrations between processes, inefficient workflows, poor self-service capabilities and outdated technology as the reason account receivable (AR) systems fail; and
- Pure digital plays account for 72% of organizations’ total marketing budgets.
