Ten months after its previous funding round, startup 6Sense Insights Inc. has secured an additional $200 million investment at a $5.2 billion valuation.

The startup, which makes software that helps companies improve the effectiveness of their sales and marketing efforts, announced the Series E investment today. Blue Owl and MSD Partners co-led the round. The firms were joined by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, B Capital Group, Franklin Templeton and Harmony Partners, as well as multiple existing investors.

San Francisco-based 6sense operates a cloud platform that helps business-to-business companies acquire more customers. The platform uses artificial intelligence to highlight the potential buyers that are most likely to turn into paying customers. It provides market data that companies can use to inform their customer acquisition efforts.

For sales teams, 6sense’s AI algorithms can generate recommendations on what steps should be taken to maximize the chance of closing a deal. The platform allows users to compare a sales initiative with past customer acquisition efforts to find potential areas for improvement.

For marketing teams, 6sense offers a console through which they can launch online ad campaigns to target potential customers. The startup says that launching a campaign takes a few minutes. According to 6sense, a set of built-in analytics features allow marketers to evaluate which ads are most successful at acquiring new customers.

To help companies manage the data they generate as part of their sales and marketing activities, 6sense also offers a so-called customer data platform as part of its feature set. The platform allows sales and marketing teams to keep key business records related to customer acquisition efforts in a single environment. According to 6sense, centralizing business information in one place simplifies analytics initiatives.

The startup claims that, on average, customers using its technology to determine which sales opportunities they should target achieve a 200% increase in deal value. Customers also experience a 10% increase in the number of opportunities that turn into deals, 6sense says. 

The startup’s platform is gaining traction among enterprise sales and marketing teams. According to 6sense, the number of companies in its customer base has doubled since its last funding round last March. Net retention rate, a measure of how existing customers increase their spending over their time, reached 125%. The result, according to 6sense, is that its annual revenue run rate now exceeds $110 million.

“Our growth continues to outpace every competitor in our category, and customers consistently rave about the exceptional results they see with 6sense,” said 6sense Chief Executive Officer Jason Zintak (pictured). “This investment adds fuel to our trajectory and gives us the ability to accelerate on our commitments.”

Following its latest funding round, 6sense plans to grow its presence in international markets and double down on a number of industries, including the financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences sectors.

The $200 million round marks at least the third time in a week that a startup with software designed to help companies streamline its sales efforts announced a nine-figure investment. On Wednesday, Clari Inc. said it has raised $225 million at a $2.6 billion valuation for its revenue operations platform, which helps with tasks such as creating sales forecasts. Last Thursday, sales software maker Highspot Inc. closed a $248 million funding round of its own. 

Photo: SiliconANGLE