Vieu co-founders, from left, are Simon Skaria, chief technology officer, and Samir Manjure, CEO.
Bellevue-based AI startup Vieu, which touts technology that improves targeting of B2B enterprise sales opportunities, announced on Thursday a funding round of $11 million to scale its AI-powered business network.
The seed round was led by Bellevue-based Trilogy Equity Partners, with participation from Incubate Fund and Vela Partners. Additionally, angel investors, including founders, CEOs, and sales leaders from the enterprise-software industry, also invested in the round, Vieu said in a news release.
Vieu said its first-of-its-kind AI-powered business network replaces outdated “spray and pray” cold outbound methods and offers a new way to connect to buying committees at scale and speed enterprise pursuits at scale.
“What worked in the last decade to get into new accounts is no longer working for enterprise sellers,”Vieu co-founder and CEO Samir Manjure, said in the release. “Today’s sales teams are buried under a blanket of sales acceleration tools but none that solve for building trust with customers. Our mission is to help salespeople get to the first business meeting faster without dozens of cold calls or emails, while building trust with the buyer in the process. The ability to secure trust, leverage networks, and land business meetings with the buying committee is just the beginning; we’re creating a real business network.”
Vieu is seeing its customers secure first meetings with target enterprise customers five times faster, while increasing their sales-team productivity threefold, Manjure said, adding, “This is what’s possible when you replace old legacy spray-and-pray methods with trusted introductions from the Vieu Network.”
Vieu’s funding round comes after customer and revenue numbers have more than tripled over the past 12 months, including several notable publicly listed organizations, the company said.
The increasing business coincides with more complexity in the B2B buying processes and growing resistance to unsolicited pitches, Vieu said, adding that it’s AI-powered solution provides a scalable approach to building trust in enterprise sales at a time when purchasing decisions involve multiple stakeholders and demand more personalized, value-driven engagement.
Trilogy Equity Partners explored multiple startups addressing this space before investing in Vieu, Chuck Stonecipher, Trilogy managing director, said in the release.
“We strongly believe that Vieu is solving for the right problem at the right time with the right approach,” Stonecipher said. “Enterprise deals need a warm and informed approach. We believe that the B2B sales will move more towards the Vieu way of selling, one that’s driven by trusted relationships.”
Manjure and co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Simon Skaria bring backgrounds that include 17 years and 16 years, respectively, at Microsoft. Manjure previously was founder and CEO of KenSci, which was acquired by Providence Group and is now Advata. Skaria previously founded and sold startups Albits, acquired by ICICI, and Office365Mon, acquired by Zscaler.