Marketing and sales startup Drift.com Inc. announced today that it has raised $32 million in Series B financing to further develop its sales bot platform.

The funding round was led by existing investor General Catalyst, and it included participation from other previous investors CRV and HubSpot, as well as new investor Sequoia Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to date to $47 million.

Founded in 2014 in Boston before hitting the market in 2016, Drift uses artificial intelligence to partially automate the sales process by engaging potential customers with conversational chat bots. Drift said its bots can not only book appointments and answer questions, but they can also qualify sales leads in real time.

Drift said it has already worked with more than 50,000 businesses over the last two years, adding that its platform can accelerate the sales cycle by qualifying leads at all hours of the day with no requirements for staffing or training.

“The marketing and sales tools that most businesses rely on today were built for a world that no longer exists,” said Drift founder and Chief Executive David Cancel. “We live in an on-demand world with infinite choice, and yet we force potential customers to fill out forms and jump through hoops in order to talk to us. Buyers have all of the power today and place a premium on convenience and customer experience.”

Larry Bohn, managing director at General Catalyst, said Drift is “rewriting the playbook for modern sales and marketing,” and Sequoia Partner Pat Grady called Drift’s platform “the single best way to turn your website visitors into customers.”

Drift says its new funding will allow it to further expand into marketing automation and sales acceleration. The company also plans to open a new office in San Francisco, with plans to grow its staff by more than 100 employees in the next 12 months.

Photo: Drift.com