Seattle startup Outreach pulls in $17.5 million

Seattle sales-technology company Outreach has raised $17.5 million in series B funding, bringing its total funding to more than $29 million since the startup launched in January 2015.

Outreach automates communication between salespeople and their clients, with the goal to make it easier to keep up relationships and increase sales.

Sales personnel often manage 50 or more accounts at once, CEO Manuel Medina said, and are expected to follow up with most of them every day while a sale is in process.

“What happens is that all this conversation with different people falls into the cracks,” he said. “…Outreach creates a workflow where salespeople know what to do next and automates follow-up.”

The startup provides a service that plugs into the company’s existing customer-relationship management software and tracks relationships between salespeople and clients.

The system will send reminders and nudges to salespeople to reach out to clients in whichever form has been most effective — email, a phone call or a LinkedIn message, for example.

Outreach is based inside the Brooks Running building in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and has about 80 employees. It plans to use the new funds in part to hire more engineers and marketers.

Medina said the team is expected to double in the next year.

The funding round was led by Trinity Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif., with participation from existing investors and Microsoft Ventures, which recently refocused its corporate venture fund.

Microsoft said it would invest in companies that complement its technology — particularly its Azure cloud business. Outreach, a cloud-based program, may be especially valuable to Microsoft after the Redmond company’s recent $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn data may be incorporated into Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM to provide more client data to salespeople.

Outreach also plans to use the funds to continue building its product and focus on new analytics features.