Nooks, an AI sales platform, has secured $43 million in Series B funding led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to $70 million and valuing the startup at $285 million. The platform, founded by Stanford classmates in 2020, has seen significant success in the past two years, quadrupling its revenue year on year. Nooks offers AI tools for sales teams to automate manual tasks like finding contact information, leaving voicemails, and writing emails. The platform’s dialing assistant has helped sales representatives like Tony De Leon increase their daily conversations from two to 10, improving pipeline generation.
Initially launched as a “virtual office” during the pandemic, Nooks pivoted to focus on AI tools for sales teams in 2022 after realizing the demand from sales professionals. The platform is built on top of off-the-shelf AI models and trained on a dataset of 100 million anonymized sales conversations. In addition to automation tools, Nooks also offers coaching features to help salespeople practice calls and receive feedback from AI. The platform integrates with other software used by sales teams daily, helping to reduce “tool bloat” and streamline workflows.
Nooks faces competition from tech giants like Salesforce and Microsoft, both of which offer AI-powered tools for sales representatives. Despite this, Nooks plans to use its new investment to expand its team and enhance its product by adding new features for finding leads. The goal is to help the millions of sales representatives in the country automate tedious tasks and focus on the strategic aspects of selling. Kleiner Perkins, the venture capital firm leading the funding round, believes that Nooks has the potential to make sales teams more productive and increase revenues, allowing sales professionals to concentrate on closing deals and building relationships.
With the rise of AI technology in the sales industry, Nooks is positioning itself as a valuable tool for companies looking to streamline their sales processes and boost efficiency. The platform’s success in quadrupling revenue year on year has caught the attention of investors like Kleiner Perkins, who see the potential for Nooks to revolutionize the way sales teams operate. As Nooks continues to evolve and add new features, it aims to empower sales representatives to focus on the human-centered, strategic aspects of their job, ultimately driving success for both the company and the sales professionals using the platform.