UserEvidence, a customer evidence platform tailored for go-to-market (GTM) teams, has exciting news to share: the company has successfully acquired Zealot, a fast-growing advocacy and reference management platform. This announcement comes alongside a notable funding achievement, as UserEvidence secured an additional $7 million in a funding round led by existing investors. With this latest investment, the total funding for UserEvidence has reached $21 million.
These recent milestones represent a significant leap forward in UserEvidence’s mission to bridge the growing “Evidence Gap” that many B2B marketing and sales teams face. The goal is to provide reliable and trustworthy customer proof that can be deployed effectively at each stage of the sales funnel. In an increasingly competitive landscape, this capability is essential for teams striving to close deals and drive conversions.
The integration of Zealot into the UserEvidence platform introduces new and powerful features that will enhance the overall user experience. Users can now benefit from proactive advocate activation, which means they can engage more effectively with customers who are willing to act as advocates for their brand.
In addition, the platform offers innovative 1:1 reference management and AI-based matchmaking tools that help connect advocates with active deals. These advancements perfectly complement UserEvidence’s established expertise in generating verified customer evidence, including compelling customer quotes, ROI data, and original research, all while facilitating cross-channel distribution to reach a wider audience.
With this expansion, the newly integrated platform empowers customer marketers to assume more strategic roles. They can identify and activate advocates using tailored segmentation, campaign workflows, and even gamified incentives that encourage participation. The AI-driven features allow these marketers to match the right reference to the right deal. By utilizing intelligent filters based on various factors such as industry, role, product usage, and potential burnout risk, teams can ensure they provide the best possible customer proof without delay.
To illustrate the importance of these tools, recent research from UserEvidence reveals that 53% of B2B sellers have experienced lost or delayed deals because they were unable to provide the relevant customer evidence at crucial moments. Traditional approaches to gathering customer proof—such as relying on static case studies, hasty reference requests, and one-off customer inquiries—simply do not meet the demands of modern sales cycles or the complexities of contemporary buying committees.
The addition of Zealot to the platform empowers customer marketing and advocacy teams to shift from reactive support roles to strategic, scalable positions that actively drive pipeline and revenue. The platform will facilitate better customer engagement while helping teams demonstrate the impact of their efforts through robust attribution and reporting tools, seamlessly integrated with Salesforce.
Among the many enhancements that Zealot brings to the table, features for advocacy management stand out. The platform supports smart segmentation and mission-based campaigns, designed to effectively engage the right customers. Users can reward advocates with recognition features such as points, badges, and leaderboards, fostering a sense of community and participation. Furthermore, with embedded tools that function within platforms customers are already familiar with, the transition becomes smooth and intuitive.
On the reference management side, the platform offers practical solutions, including Slack and Salesforce workflows for real-time reference requests. Teams will benefit from a centralized and searchable reference pool, enhanced by granular filters for easier access. AI-based matchmaking helps ensure that the right references are matched to the relevant deals more quickly, streamlining processes and improving response times. Additionally, features that protect against burnout and offer impact analytics are in place to help maintain healthy and effective advocacy and reference programs.
KEY QUOTES:
“The go-to-market playbook is being rewritten in real time. Outbound is flooded with AI-generated noise. Paid media’s losing steam. And buyers? They’re more skeptical than ever. They want credible, specific proof before they’ll even consider buying. This acquisition gives our customers a true end-to-end engine to collect, activate, and deliver that proof where—and when—it matters most.”
“This is about more than functionality. It’s about setting a new standard. GTM teams shouldn’t have to cross their fingers and hope the right proof shows up. They should be engineering it into every deal.”
Evan Huck, CEO of UserEvidence
