$1 Billion Evaluation for a Product Experience Company! Now, We’re Talking Serious MarTech

Pendo has just announced $100 million funding, taking its evaluation to $1 Billion. This is a major development in the Martech category that Pendo operates in – Product Experience. Despite competition from players such as Gainsight, Mixpanel, and Amplitude Analytics, Pendo has managed to raise $100 million in Series E funding to help companies become centrally product-led. Sapphire Ventures led the round, with participation from new investors General Atlantic and Tiger Global, along with existing investors Battery Ventures, Meritech Capital, FirstMark, Geodesic Capital, and Cross Creek. Pendo has now raised $206 million and will use the new funds to accelerate global expansion and drive product development to meet the growing demand for software that makes digital products easier to use.

The latest funding round occurs at a time when companies across all industries are looking to increase their investment in software tools for product management and product operations teams. According to a recent Gartner survey, 85% of companies are adopting a product-centric application delivery model. This reality has fueled Pendo’s massive growth.

Product Experience: The Competitiveness is Unmatched in Martech

At the time of this announcement, Pendo CEO and co-founder Todd Olson said, “Product experience is how companies compete today, yet most digital products are still really hard to use.”

Currently, Pendo caters to the world’s leading software companies and digital enterprises, including Verizon, LabCorp, BMC, Coupa, Okta, Salesforce, and Zendesk.

In a recent interview, Zendesk’s Elisabeth Zornes had said, “When I think of CX, it really starts with putting the customer at the center of what their requirements are, and how they want to use the technology or use the services specific to their industry. A CX platform allows us to do a couple of things. The first is to truly understand who the customer is and what their requirements are. We can use data and information to predict what their needs might be as next steps.”

Founded by product people in 2013 in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina, Pendo is backed by Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital and Sapphire Ventures. Through its community  of martech followers and leaders, ProductCraft, sponsored events and podcast, Pendo aims to support the success of product people everywhere.

Todd added, “Many product teams still lack the basic tools they need to understand what their customers want, why customers come back, or what drives them away. Companies can’t deliver great digital products if they can’t answer those basic questions. Pendo has built the most comprehensive platform available today to help any company that interacts with customers digitally to drive growth through better product experiences.”

Product-centric Business Key to Drive Digital Transformation in Marketing, Sales and Customer Support

The company has a three-year CAGR of 334% and now employs more than 375 people worldwide. The company’s bookings grew 108 percent in the second quarter over the same period of the prior fiscal year; it now serves over 1,200 customers, including Verizon, ADP, Cardinal Health, RE/MAX, LabCorp, Bright Horizons, Okta, OpenTable, Salesforce, Zendesk and the Michigan Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Pendo completed its second acquisition with the purchase of UK-based Receptive.io; the company now has offices in Raleigh, New York City, San Francisco, London, Sheffield, United Kingdom, and Tel Aviv.

“As our global economy continues to transform digitally, product led companies have a clear strategic advantage. Over the last few years, software for product teams has emerged as an important new category, and Pendo as a clear leader,” said Rajeev Dham, managing director at Sapphire Ventures and Pendo board member.

“Pendo’s business fundamentals, growth, product suite and incredible leadership team have set the company up to be a leading SaaS business for years to come.”

Earlier this year, Pendo was named to Forbes’ Cloud 100 list for the second year in a row, and Inc. named Pendo number 73 on the Inc. 5,000, the magazine’s annual list of the fastest growing companies in America. Pendo also recently began the development of its new 125,000-square-foot headquarters in downtown Raleigh, set to open in early 2022.