Propel Raises $18M in Series B Funding to Scale Its ‘OS for Products’

Norwest Venture Partners leads new round of funding following Propel’s 500 percent annual revenue increase

SANTA CLARA, California – November 15, 2018 – Propel, the platform for future brands, today announced it has raised an $18 million Series B round led by Norwest Venture Partners, building on its previous $10 million Series A round. This new round brings the company’s total capital raised to $28 million. Previous investors including Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Signalfire also participated in this round of funding. The new funds will be used to grow the team, deliver on its expansive product roadmap, and build on its existing customer base that already includes companies like Desktop Metal, Samsara, and Peak Design. Norwest Partner Sean Jacobsohn will join the Propel board.

Behemoth tech companies have become today’s most prominent brands because they not only build products but also create the technological processes to build products better and faster. This means being scrappy and nimble is no longer enough to compete with these titans. Challengers need a radical new secret sauce to get better quality products to market at a rapid rate.

Propel combines three key elements of product development to bring higher quality products to market ridiculously fast – from concept to customer. By merging Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Information Management (PIM), and Quality Management System (QMS) functionalities Propel breaks down barriers between front office and back office departments to create a collaborative whole office. This enables all stakeholders – including the end customer – to work together in parallel on product decisions, allowing for rapid iteration between formerly siloed groups that didn’t communicate.

“We’re growing Desktop Metal through three key strategies – hiring and retaining a world-class team, simultaneously developing our product and supply chain, and using modern cloud technologies to run the entire business,” said Matt Verminski, VP of Engineering at Desktop Metal. ”Propel is one of the critical applications that helped us scale the company in just 3 years. Over 75% of our company relies on Propel to collaborate on the latest product information.”

Propel is also announcing a new product release, which further speeds up how quickly companies can get products to market. The new PIM features will provide a frictionless experience for marketing teams to create complex SKUs and regional variations for any sales channel. This 2.0 product release also includes UX enhancements with PLM to further streamline design collaboration, in addition to audit and security features for QMS that ensure even the fastest product launch meets the most stringent quality standards.

“The pace of innovation is accelerating, and cloud-first companies like Propel are leading the pack by creating technology that helps companies quickly iterate their product based on industry trends and feedback,” said Sean Jacobsohn, partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “With Propel’s solution, companies can get up and running faster than with on-premise alternatives and pivot products in a matter of seconds based on real-time feedback gathered from marketing, engineering, sales, customers and the entire supply chain.”

Unlike traditional on-premise platforms, Propel was made explicitly for the cloud. Propel’s ‘OS for Products’ is the only cloud-first PLM, PIM and QMS platform on Salesforce, making it easy to integrate with Salesforce data and equip brands with the information they need to make smarter decisions on creating, marketing and selling things people want.

“Our goal at Propel is to equip any company with the tools to work at the speed of startups,” said Propel founder and CEO, Ray Hein. “Now that we’re seeing the Goliaths become more nimble than the Davids, it’s important for all companies to rethink how they approach product development. At Propel, our OS for Products integrates the whole product development cycle from concept to customer – in order to get incredible products to market ridiculously fast. We’re excited to put our new capital to work, helping the most innovative companies deliver products customers love.”

Propel was founded by Ray Hein, who previously held leadership positions at Agile Software, Apttus, Vendavo, and Centric Software, along with Brian Sohmers, former general manager and EVP of Equilar, and Ron Hess, a former Salesforce architect and evangelist. The Series B funding follows the end of Propel’s fiscal year, where the company achieved over 500 percent revenue growth and a 300 percent increase in the number of customers. For more information about Propel, visit propelPLM.com.

About Propel
Propel is the platform for future brands. The company helps brands like Desktop Metal, Samsara and Peak Design get to market ridiculously fast by enabling collaboration across teams, divisions, partners, and customers. Propel uniquely combines product lifecycle management (PLM), product information management (PIM), and quality management solutions (QMS) into one system, natively built on the Salesforce platform. The company is backed by leading venture capitalists such as Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Signalfire and Salesforce Ventures and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. For more information, visit propelPLM.com.

About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a premier multi-stage investment firm managing more than $7.5 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies and partner with over 140 active companies across our venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.

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