SaaS startup Pepsales has secured $1.1 Mn (around INR 9.1 Cr) in a pre-seed funding round led by Chiratae Ventures.
The round also saw participation from a host of both domestic and overseas founders and angel investors.
The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to develop software, helping B2B SaaS companies create personalised product demos to cater to a large number of buyers.
Pepsales was launched by Ajay Singh and Abhinandan Sahgal in 2023 to offer B2B businesses an alternative to generic product demos by enabling buyers to get live demos in three clicks. Customized cloud-based product demos will make way for businesses to market their products in a personalized manner and in turn enhance buyers’ interest in the seller’s portfolio.
The SaaS startup uses customer data and machine learning to make product demos relevant to the buyers, reducing the time and effort made by sellers to personalize demos as per the requirements of each product.
Sahgal said, “Our proprietary AI and ML technology automates the process of creating personalized demos, saving sales teams countless hours.”
Singh told Inc42 that the demo automation is a fairly new category recognized by the American research and consulting firm, Gartner, last year and there are only a few players in this space in India.
The SaaS startup is targeting the domestic and the US market to compete with the likes of Consensus, Folio and Demoboost in the US and Storylane in India. Pepsales is developing its portfolio and altering its offerings based on the feedback of SaaS clients in the targeted key markets.
Further, the investment made by Chiratae Ventures will support the SaaS company in scaling its operations and tapping the global market.
“The funding will help us to build an enterprise grade AI platform for our customers in the B2B SaaS companies in the US. We will utilize the fund in expanding our products, technology and AI talent,” said Singh.
This funding comes at a time when other B2B SaaS companies are also eyeing investments. For instance, another Bengaluru-based startup Knit secured $1 Mn in a seed funding round led by Endiya Partners, along with other participants such as Axilor Ventures and angel investors.
Knit enables businesses to connect with different SaaS platforms and workplace chat tools using its unified API (application programming interface) platform.
In another similar development, B2B SaaS startup Rupyz secured $1.2 Mn (INR 9.9 Cr) as a part of its seed funding round from Merak Ventures, along with other angel investors. Rupyz is a B2B e-commerce and sales automation platform that enables its clients to map the entire supply chain, helping them to streamline their supply chain processes.
