Propel is a platform for future brands that has raised $18 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, which builds on the company’s previous $10 million Series A round. This brings Propel’s total funding to $28 million. Some of the previous investors that participated in this round include Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Signalfire.
With this round of funding, Propel plans to deliver on its expansive product roadmap, grow its team, and build on its existing customer base. In conjunction with the funding, Norwest partner Sean Jacobsohn is joining Propel’s board.
In order for tech companies to take on giant brands, they have to build higher quality products better and faster. And then those products have to be brought to the market at a rapid rate.
Propel is known for combining three elements of product development for bringing higher quality products to market at a rapid pace — from the point of concept to customer. These elements include the merging of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Information Management (PIM), and Quality Management System (QMS).
Through this combination, Propel is able to break down the barriers between the front office and back office departments. And this enables all stakeholders including the end customer to work together in parallel on product decisions. Propel saw over 500% revenue growth at the end of its fiscal year and a 300% increase in the number of customers.
“Our goal at Propel is to equip any company with the tools to work at the speed of startups,” said Propel founder and CEO Ray Hein. “Now that we’re seeing the Goliaths become more nimble than the Davids, it’s important for all companies to rethink how they approach product development. At Propel, our OS for Products integrates the whole product development cycle from concept to customer – in order to get incredible products to market ridiculously fast. We’re excited to put our new capital to work, helping the most innovative companies deliver products customers love.”
Hein previously held leadership roles at companies like Agile Software, Apttus, Vendavo, and Centric Software. Brian Sohmers, a former general manager and EVP of Equilar, is also a co-founder at Proel along with former Salesforce architect and evangelist Ron Hess.
Propel is also announcing a new product release, which has features that can get products to market faster. Through the new PIM features, it creates a frictionless experience for marketing teams to create complex SKUs and regional variations for any sales channel.
“The pace of innovation is accelerating, and cloud-first companies like Propel are leading the pack by creating technology that helps companies quickly iterate their product based on industry trends and feedback,” added Jacobsohn. “With Propel’s solution, companies can get up and running faster than with on-premise alternatives and pivot products in a matter of seconds based on real-time feedback gathered from marketing, engineering, sales, customers and the entire supply chain.”
