Unify, an AI-powered startup that uses data to reach potential buyers, has raised $12 million in Series A led by existing investors Emergence Capital and Thrive Capital. OpenAI Startup Fund, Neo, Abstract, 20Sales, and AltCap also participated in this round.
The 20-month-old company took advantage of OpenAI's Converge I accelerator last year and secured a nearly $7 million seed round from the same group of investors following that program.
Unify was co-founded by Austin Hughes. He has led Ramp's sales outbound program for several years. While working at Ramp, Hughes noticed that cold email outreach was not as successful as it had been in the previous decade. This has led to the idea that sales, marketing, and revenue operations teams need to make better use of all available data to reach customers with personalized content when they are about to make a purchase. Ta.
Hughes worked with Connor Heggie, a machine learning research engineer at Scale AI, on AI-enhanced messaging to help sales teams capture leads and close deals faster.
Of course, this is not a unique idea. One of the fastest growing segments of AI-powered apps is AI Sales Development Agency (AISDR). AISDR startups such as 11x.ai, Reggie.ai, and Artisan are growing so fast that VCs are hunkering down to invest at high valuations.
Although Unify relies on AI to target potential buyers, Hughes told TechCrunch that he doesn't consider his company to be an AISDR. He likes to think of his startup as delivering what is called a “warm outbound” message. “We do not compete with AISDR,” Hughes said. “You can fine-tune every part of Unify, including the copy, what is said, and the data sources you pull from.”
For example, Unify pulls data from CRMs and other data warehouses to help you decide what to say to potential buyers in your messages. It also helps you scan online data sources to identify potential customers and signals of purchase intent.
Rather than focusing on the messaging part, Hughes says he looks up to companies like Zoominfo and Outbound.io as models for what he's trying to build. “We think of ourselves as a data company,” he said.
Unify may have a slightly different approach to its AI sales efforts than AISDR companies, but one thing is clear: the company is also growing very quickly. The company already has millions of dollars in revenue, its website is filled with customer logos, and it counts companies like Justworks and Lattice among its customers.