Sales intelligence startup Apollo.io to invest $30M in India, open office in Bengaluru

San Francisco headquartered Apollo.io on Thursday said it will invest $30 million in India over the next two years, making it the startup’s research and development (R&D) hub. 

The business-to-business (B2B) startup, which has been remote-first up until now, plans to launch its first physical office in Bengaluru for its R&D team. Apollo.io also plans to hire over 100 R&D engineers in the coming months. 

The capital investment comes after the sales intelligence startup raised $110 million in Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital, along with existing investors Tribe Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and NewView Capital. 

Co-founder and CEO Tim Zheng told YourStory, “(I am) extremely bullish about the engineering talent here and the larger prospect potential of India”

Half of Apollo.io's engineering team is in India. Presently, it has more than 200 people in its team (with 30 employees in India), which it plans to grow to 500 next year. 

ALSO READ

How B2B pharma startup Saveo is filling the gaps in India’s fragmented medical supply chain

Founded in 2015 by Tim, Roy Chung, and Ray Li, Apollo.io is B2B sales intelligence and engagement platform with over 16,000 companies as its clients. It helps about one million users of its client by automating their sales processes and scaling their revenue.

“Our recent Series C funding has enabled us to expand our footprint in India with our first R&D office space set to be located at Bengaluru after having worked remotely through the pandemic,” Tim said in a release. 

“We look forward to scaling our India team rapidly; it will play an important role in bolstering our core R&D team, our business growth and global expansion," he added

The startup has raised over $150 million to date. 

Tim added the company has grown by 3X during the last year in terms of revenue too. 

Abhishek Sharma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners told YourStory that he was optimistic about Apollo.io’s growth as an end-user focused company. It isn’t focused on buyers, which helps them build a better product. 

In the release, he said, “The setting up of its first-ever office space in Bengaluru will help the brand scale to a larger R&D presence in the coming years.”

“We firmly believe that Apollo.io is on the right growth track with its investment commitment towards its R&D and engineering teams,” he added.