Pieterjan Bouten
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
The announcement of any round of funding is a significant, celebratory milestone — and it’s no different with our latest round of $70M Series D funding led by Dawn Capital and Insight Partners, with support from our existing investor Hummingbird Ventures and Korelya Capital. We have come a long way from launching an iPad application for Sales teams in 2011 to now bringing to market the most flexible and complete Sales Enablement platform. Louis and I truly believe this is only the beginning.
When I was asked recently to describe how I felt closing this round, several words came to mind: humbled, excited, and determined.
- Humbled by the support of our awesome families, employees, partners, and investors. We couldn’t do it without them.
- Excited about our mission to empower Sales and Marketing to sell the way buyers want to buy. This is now the reality for more than 1,200 Showpad customers across the globe. We are obsessed with our customers and love them!
- Determined to build a category-leading company leading the Sales Enablement space. The industry has gotten incredible traction over the last few years and we intend to keep leading the way by making bold moves and innovating at a furious pace.
On top of those feelings, a few other big things come to mind when I think about what we’ve been able to accomplish so far.
Remarkable Growth Across Regions
Showpad was founded in Belgium in 2011 and since then we’ve always held a dominant position in the EMEA market. With offices in Ghent (our headquarters), Brussels, London, Munich, and Wroclaw, our presence in Europe continues to grow. Additionally, this past year was one of significant U.S. growth. Year over year, we hired more than 120 employees in our U.S. offices and grew the business over 150%. We will continue to invest heavily — both in the U.S. and Europe — to be close to our customers and attract the very best talent. We are also looking into other parts of the world to start building a presence. Stay tuned!
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Recognition of High-Performing Company Culture
Hiring at a fast pace means we have lots of new faces, personalities, and talented people joining our teams around the globe every week. For some companies, culture can get lost with lots of change. As we continue to scale the business, Louis and myself are committed to making sure we stay true to the fundamental values upon which Showpad is built. This requires hard work, but luckily we have our Showpad company values — known as the Showings — as a guiding compass. When Inc. Magazine named Showpad as one of the 2019 Best Workplaces, it was a special recognition and reminder that it’s our employees that make this company so special. And we’re not stopping – we’re looking for more good-natured ass kickers to join our team.
Ongoing Validation
Sales Enablement is becoming a must-have solution for every business. As buyers get more sophisticated, Salespeople need help to be more prepared, articulate more value and engage with their buyers in the best possible way. Helping our customers deliver the very best buyer experience is our focus and we’ll continue to develop the leading technology to support it. To deliver that best buyer experience you need smart and informed Salespeople who are capable of engaging with the modern buyer.
Your Sales team cannot be smart and informed by only providing them with access to the right content. They also need to be trained and coached in the right way. This is why last year we acquired LearnCore so we could merge our content solution with training and coaching capabilities, all in one platform. In less than a year, we integrated both teams and products. I am proud to say we have the most flexible and complete solution on the market.
Looking Forward to What’s Next
Over the last eight years, several things got us where we are today. Besides the Showings, our amazing team, many awesome partners, and great investors, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our customers.
In the coming years, it’s our intention to be even more obsessed with our customers and learn from them how we can continue to improve and deliver value so they can be even more successful than they are today.
So on that note thanks to all of our customers and everyone who is part of our story. Looking forward to continue making it happen over the next few years.
