UPDATED 12:54 EDT / MAY 16 2019

CLOUD

Advancing M&A plans, SugarCRM buys marketing automation startup Salesfusion

SugarCRM Inc. today announced that it’s expanding its market reach with the acquisition of Salesfusion Inc., a marketing automation startup backed by more than $32 million in funding.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. It comes two months after SugarCRM picked up another startup, Singapore’s Collabspot Pte Ltd., that developed a tool for enabling salespeople to view data from their customer relationship management systems in their email inboxes.

Cupertino, California-based SugarCRM is a major rival to Salesforce.com Inc. in the CRM market, with more than 2 million users worldwide. The company’s namesake CRM platform helps sales departments with day-to-day tasks such as organizing lead data while also providing features for adjacent teams such as the marketing group. SugarCRM enables marketers to add in their own lead data, create outreach campaigns and monitor engagement.

The Salesfusion acquisition will significantly expand those capabilities. The startup’s marketing automation platform includes tools that enable companies to find ways of improving their websites’ search engine visibility, create Google Ads campaigns and coordinate their social media activity. Salesfusion also offers an extensive set of analytics features for tracking the effectiveness of customer engagement initiatives.

SugarCRM said that it will continue to sell Salesfusion’s platform as a standalone offering. The company plans to put more resources into developing features for the product, as well as build out integrations with its flagship CRM.

The purchase of Salesfusion and earlier Collabspot deal are part of a broader acquisition strategy being pursued by the CRM provider. Craig Charlton, SugarCRM’s chief executive, told TechCrunch that he has plans to make up to three more acquisitions in the coming quarter to open new growth opportunities.

The company is likely financing its acquisition spree at least in part with the capital it raised from Accel-KKR last August. The private equity firm bought a majority stake in SugarCRM for an undisclosed sum that was reported to top $100 million.

Photo: SugarCRM

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