Seismic: $92 Million And About A $1.6 Billion Valuation

By Dan Anderson • Oct 5, 2020
  • Sales enablement and marketing orchestration platform provider Seismic announced it has raised $92 million in a Series F round of funding led by the Permira funds

Sales enablement and marketing orchestration platform provider Seismic announced it has raised $92 million in a Series F round of funding led by the Permira funds to accelerate Seismic’s rapid innovation, international growth, and M&A activity. Additional new strategic investors include Ameriprise Financial and EDBI. And existing investors participating in the round include Jackson Square Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and T. Rowe Price. This round brings the total raised by Seismic to approximately $270 million to date and values the company at approximately $1.6 billion.

Along with its primary capital investment, the Permira funds have also made a significant secondary investment in Seismic, thus becoming Seismic’s single largest shareholder.

Seismic has emerged as the clear sales enablement and marketing orchestration leader with revenues nearly 4 times its nearest competitor. And during the first half of 2020, Seismic achieved a 148% increase in active users over the prior-year period, driven in part by the world’s shift to digital and remote work.

The company also expanded its Seismic Storytelling Platform with the acquisition of Percolate in November 2019. And Seismic has also driven international expansion, including opening offices in France, Germany, and Australia in the past year. With over 600 enterprise customers worldwide, Seismic enjoys a best-in-class net retention rate of nearly 120%, indicative of the growing value it’s delivering its customers. Launched in 2010 with headquarters in San Diego, Seismic now has over 900 global employees across 14 offices.

J.P. Morgan served as a financial advisor to Permira. And BofA Securities served as financial advisor to Seismic.

KEY QUOTES:

“We founded Seismic ten years ago to enable marketing and sales teams to engage with prospective customers with the right content at the right time – delivering tailored, personalized experiences at scale. Permira’s investment in Seismic is a tremendous testament to Seismic’s market opportunity, team, and overall momentum. Permira’s experience investing in leading enterprise software companies will help us accelerate Seismic platform innovations, international expansion, and M&A efforts. We are also thrilled to have Ameriprise Financial, a valued Seismic customer, expand their relationship with us as a strategic investor. In addition, I’m excited to welcome EDBI, a leading global investment firm in Asia, to the Seismic family as we continue to expand our footprint in the Asia-Pacific region.”

— Doug Winter, Seismic Co-Founder and CEO

“Seismic is a pioneer in the sales enablement category, and a critical application supporting customers’ shift toward more effective selling using personalized content throughout the buyer journey. Across the Permira portfolio, our companies have turned to Seismic to improve sales effectiveness and efficiency.”

— Ryan Lanpher, Partner of Permira

“We are very excited to partner with the Seismic team to accelerate the product roadmap, global expansion, and vertical market-focused growth opportunities, particularly in financial services.”

— Andy Young, Principal of Permira

“When we led Seismic’s last round of financing, we became committed to Seismic’s vision and were especially struck by the deep enthusiasm of Seismic’s customers. Seismic is playing an instrumental role in helping organizations enable their marketing and sales teams to engage with customers with highly relevant content to accelerate sales cycles. The company has been quite successful helping enable many of the world’s largest brands with highly distributed, global teams.”

— John W. Thompson, Venture Partner at Lightspeed, Seismic Board Member, and Chairman, Board of Directors, Microsoft