Vieu, a Seattle-based startup founded in 2022 by former Microsoft leaders Simon Skaria and Samir Manjure, has announced an $11 million seed investment round. The company aims to help sales teams boost their enterprise sales processes by providing warm introductions rather than cold calls. Vieu uses generative AI to analyze millions of data points and create a “business graph” to identify potential sales targets most likely to convert based on various signals. The platform also offers guidance on how to sell to potential customers using data from companies, events, SEC filings, and other sources.
Revenue for Vieu has tripled over the past year, with approximately 40 customers including Hyperproof, Rubrik, and HP Enterprise. The company attributes its success to being in the right place at the right time with the right product. Vieu currently has 40 employees and plans to double its headcount over the next year. The company faces competition from other sales intelligence startups such as Outreach, ZoomInfo, Belkins, and Reply.io. Vieu’s vision extends beyond B2B sales as it aims to build out business networks using its platform.
Samir Manjure, Vieu’s CEO, spent more than 17 years at Microsoft before founding KenSci, a company that helped healthcare organizations predict risks by aggregating patient data. KenSci was acquired by Providence Group in 2021. Manjure held various engineering leadership positions at Microsoft in areas including Bing and AI. Simon Skaria, Vieu’s CTO, spent more than 16 years at Microsoft working on SQL, Office 365, Azure AI, and mixed reality. Prior to that, he founded Office365Mon, which was acquired by ZScaler, and Albits, which was acquired by ICICI.
The seed round for Vieu was led by Bellevue-based firm Trilogy Equity Partners, with Trilogy managing director Chuck Stonecipher joining Vieu’s board. Additional backers include Incubate Fund and Vela Partners. The company had previously announced initial funding last year. Vieu’s platform offers users the ability to enter the name of a target account they want to connect with, and the platform will automatically generate every possible connection that exists between their company and the target company. Vieu’s success in helping companies improve their sales processes has led to rapid growth and plans for further expansion in the future.
