Whereas a associate at a VC agency, Nicolas Sharp took on the undertaking of discovering buyer relationship administration (CRM) software program for the agency. The method, he says, was “a nightmare,” main him to construct a CRM platform that might meet his — and his firm’s — wants.
“I turned a developer by evening and a VC by day,” Sharp instructed TechCrunch through e-mail. “After just a few months, I left the enterprise world to proceed the undertaking.”
“The undertaking” morphed into Attio, a CRM platform that mixes a performant knowledge mannequin with the collaboration capabilities usually present in no-code software program. Based in 2019, Attio caught on shortly, in keeping with Sharp — crossing the $1 million annual recurring income mark in December 2022.
Attio has greater than 2,000 clients in over 100 nations at this time. And it’s elevating capital, simply this morning saying that it secured $23.5 million in a Sequence A spherical led by Redpoint Ventures with continued participation from Balderton Capital.
Thus far, 25-employee Attio has raised $31.2 million.
“Regardless of the present macroeconomic local weather, we’re in a superb place proper now. We’ve got a number of years of runway and are well-positioned to construct what we actually have to construct,” Sharp mentioned.
The Attio interface, desk view. Picture Credit: Attio
Like most CRMs, Attio’s platform creates a database of contacts and corporations {that a} enterprise frequently interacts with. It permits customers to type, filter and analyze buyer data in addition to take notes and create workflows, mechanically updating particulars like contact info.
“While you use Attio for the primary time, it syncs along with your e-mail and calendar and creates a view of your buyer relationships with profiles, timelines of interactions and conversations, entry to emails and intelligence on the power of every relationship,” Sharp defined. “It’s also possible to join every other knowledge supply to Attio by our API. From there, you’ll be able to type by and filter these data and construct workflows for various industries, use circumstances or eventualities.”
Sharp isn’t unaware of the truth that the CRM sport has severe competitors, Salesforce apart. Gameball, a buyer intelligence and advertising and marketing CRM platform, lately emerged from stealth with $3.5 million in enterprise backing. A bigger rival is Glia, valued at over $1 billion, which is growing an AI-based CRM that lets brokers get hands-on to assist.
Sharp sees Attio’s efficiency — and value ($119 per consumer per thirty days on the excessive finish) — as its key differentiators. Legacy CRMs, he avers, will be very highly effective with advanced knowledge fashions, but in addition gradual to deploy and dear. In the meantime, CRM startups and in-house CRMs present a greater, stabler expertise, however include extra simplistic and inflexible fashions.
“There have been quite a lot of startups which have tried to problem within the CRM house,” Sharp mentioned. “Nonetheless, the truth that even with all of those choices so many individuals are nonetheless in ‘DIY mode’ and so sad with their CRM means there’s quite a lot of house for disruption.”
Attio, not resting on its laurels, quickly plans to launch a real-time reporting characteristic that’ll permit customers to slice, manipulate and visualize buyer data. Different capabilities within the works embody expanded workflow automation.
“The largest problem that CRM is going through is that the business is dominated by one firm. Consequently, the present state of CRM is almost the identical because it was over 20 years in the past,” Sharp mentioned. “That’s why startups favor to run on a spreadsheet for so long as they’ll. The Attio philosophy, which units it other than different CRMs, is that it’s designed to be versatile and adaptable, capable of meet companies the place they’re of their journey and develop with them as they scale.”
