SiftHubAn AI startup founded by former LogiNext CTO and co-founder Manisha Raisinghani has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to construct its AI assistant designed to assist sales and pre-sales teams turn into more to concentrate on relationship constructing reasonably than routine work.
The company's generative AI assistant targets the vast majority of non-sales activities that sales reps engage in, reminiscent of entering data into CRM systems, submitting requests for proposals (RFPs), researching customer information, and creating Presentation decks. SiftHub integrates with information sources reminiscent of Google Drive, Slack, Zendesk, HubSpot, and Salesforce, and sales and pre-sales teams can simply discuss with its AI assistant to fill out infosec questionnaires and supplier evaluation forms, in addition to submit RFPs and request for information (RFI) forms. The Assistant is obtainable via Slack and Microsoft Teams as a bot, a Microsoft add-in, a Chrome plugin, and an online app, and supports 10 languages, including Spanish and German.
“When sales reps sell to corporations, they need to spend more time constructing relationships, which directly impacts sales,” Raisinghani told TechCrunch. “Not having to rent as many pre-sales people to do the deep technical be just right for you saves you time, and that impacts your bottom line,” she told TechCrunch.
SiftHub's AI assistant relies on open source LLMs (Large Language Models) and powered by RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) technology, which leverages additional data sources to optimize the standard of AI-generated content. Using RAG along with LLMs helps SiftHub limit hallucinations – a typical problem with generative AI where the system generates false or misleading results. The startup also uses cross-encoders to forestall its platform from choosing the flawed information from a selected knowledge base. Cross-encoders analyze two queries at the identical time as an alternative of them individually to supply more accurate answers.
“We would reasonably not give a solution than give the flawed answer,” Raisinghani said. The founder added that SiftHub's system may produce 5% fewer answers, but she is confident that at the least 75% of the AI's answers shall be correct.
SiftHub also uses an “intelligent search algorithm” that takes into consideration the recency of documents or knowledge sources to display relevant up-to-date information, Raisinghani said.
After spending over 10 years at LogiNext, Raisinghani recognized the necessity for an answer like SiftHub when she advised blockchain startup Polygon Labs on its enterprise go-to-market strategy in 2022. She realized that finding details about Polygon was a tedious task as the information was not available through a single channel because it was stored on multiple platforms. Sales and pre-sales representatives need plenty of details about their company and its operations when contacting potential customers. Finding this information through various sources, including company Slack channels and other disorganized documentation, is a tedious task that may take plenty of time.
She then spoke to about 200 users to higher understand the issue and classify their answers into different use cases. All of this eventually led to her specializing in the sales and pre-sales teams.
“Sales teams have a shadow team – a presales team or solutions engineers – and so they are frequently the unsung heroes of the organization. They do plenty of the technical work, from submitting RFPs (requests for proposals) to finding answers to customer questions,” she explained. “Save time in each sales and pre-sales, routinely allowing sales reps to spend more time constructing relationships.”
The marketplace for AI startups focused on sales and pre-sales activities has gained momentum over the past yr for the reason that rise of generative AI. Companies across the spectrum, from giants like Salesforce, Zoom and Google Startups like Quilt, People.ai, and Darwin AI have developed GenAI-powered tools to assist sales reps simplify quite a lot of tasks, reminiscent of: Get suggestions about which prospect is more likely to buy or churn, and more.
However, Raisinghani believes that SiftHub has a key advantage in that it’s deeper into customers' business operations and may solve the whole sales response problem – versus a “wrap of OpenAI or one other LLM.”
The startup also relies on Raisinghani's own experience in scaling startups and his 15-person team, which also includes some former entrepreneurs. “If you're going to dedicate at the least 10 years of your life to something, you desire to be sure you're keen about it and really consider in it over the subsequent decade,” she said. The company is headquartered within the USA and has a research and development team in Mumbai, India.
The funds shall be used to rent more people in product research and development, improve the product and help the corporate get to market. The seed round was co-led by Matrix Partners India and Blume Ventures, with participation from Neon Fund and executives and founders from Superhuman, Cloudflare, DevRev, RazorPay and SuperOps.
SiftHub will initially goal B2B corporations selling to mid-market and enterprise customers with revenues between $50 million and $500 million. The AI assistant is currently available to a small group of users for early feedback, and the startup is planning a “full launch” later this yr.
“Buyers have turn into smarter and are engaging with more complex questions later within the buying process. As a result, expectations for sales teams have modified – they will need to have comprehensive product, technical and legal information to achieve success. Sales and pre-sales teams lack the tools needed to cope with this latest sales environment. We are enthusiastic about SiftHub’s vision of using AI to administer product knowledge so sales can concentrate on relationships,” said Pranay Desai, partner at Matrix Partners India, in a prepared statement.
“SiftHub is Manisha’s second company within the SaaS space. Armed with over a decade of entrepreneurial experience and a formidable track record, Manisha and her team are constructing a groundbreaking AI platform to remodel the whole sales and pre-sales process. We are excited to support the SiftHub team and be a part of their ambitious journey,” said Sanjay Nath, Partner at Blume Ventures.
