Showpad is still being shown the money.
The Belgian startup, which has its North American headquarters in Chicago, has added an additional $25 million to its Series C round. The fresh funds come from Insight Venture Partners, the lead investor on the company’s previously announced $50 million Series C. The new capital brings Showpad’s Series C to $75 million and its total funding to $89.5 million.
“The additional funding we raised is all about growing the business, making marketing investments and sales investments,” said COO Jason Holmes. “A lot of that growth is going to come from our Chicago office.”
We’re building out our marketing organization primarily in Chicago and will continue to build the core of our global marketing team here.”
Showpad is a sales-enablement platform designed to improve collaboration between sales and marketing teams. The platform provides a single place for marketers to manage and organize content, which in turn makes it easier for sales teams to find the most relevant content for each conversation. Showpad also provides analytics and insights into individual content pieces, which allows marketers to see what is and isn’t helping to close deals.
“It’s evident that Showpad’s technology is rapidly, efficiently and intelligently solving some of the most important issues facing sales and marketing teams today,” said co-founder and managing director of Insight Venture Partners Jeff Horing in a statement. “We’re proud to continue our partnership with Showpad to accelerate its global growth.”
Showpad opened its Chicago office in September. At the time, Holmes had a team of one (himself). Since then, his team has grown significantly. Showpad now has 16 people in its Chicago office, and Holmes expects that number to more than double over the next six months as the company expands its reach on the East Coast and doubles down on its marketing efforts.
“We’re building out our marketing organization primarily in Chicago and will continue to build the core of our global marketing team here,” said Holmes. “I expect our office to be at 40 people or more by the end of quarter two.”
In addition to marketing roles, Showpad is also hiring for its sales and customer success teams. Along with hiring, Showpad will use part of its additional funding to build more artificial intelligence into its software. Holmes said another goal is to give partner companies the ability to build applications on top of Showpad’s platform.
“I joined Showpad for a few reasons, one of which was because I wanted to build this business in Chicago,” Holmes said. “I wanted to create a great enterprise SaaS win for the city. Five months in and I couldn’t feel any more optimistic about the decision I made and where we’re headed.”