OneShot.ai has secured $2.2M in seed funding led by prominent venture capital fund 42CAP, with follow-on participation from existing investor/previous backer Seedcamp and additional contribution from Addvia Ventures.
San Francisco and London-based OneShot.ai, founded by Gautam Rishi and Peda Venkateswarlu Pola, has built the first true end-to-end prospecting platform powered by advanced machine learning and generative artificial intelligence technology.
This financing, which was secured in December, 2022, will be used to compound the company’s already unprecedented growth, fulfill established market demand, and accelerate the mission to help sales teams reclaim their valuable time by automating tedious, repetitive prospecting work. Scaling the world-class go-to-market team, investing in customer success, and deepening the industry-leading AI technology are key priorities.
“The current state of outbound sales isn’t working; not for salespeople, not for leaders, and certainly not for customers,” says Rishi, co-founder and CEO of OneShot.ai and former sales leader at Cloudbees and Akamai.
“There’s massive top-down pressure on sales reps to increase the volume of their outreach. This prioritization of quantity over quality results in ineffective, generic messaging that frustrates potential customers. Salespeople simply don’t have time for the more thoughtful, personal approach that modern buyers expect. OneShot.ai uses AI to automate all the prospecting busywork, freeing reps up to focus on high-value accounts and activities.”
Peda V Pola, the co-founder and CTO of OneShot.ai, who had a 13-year tenure in Tech & Product at Salesforce, says of the technical ability of AI to power outbound sales: “Prospecting is tiring work. Reps are constantly dealing with rejection. Plus, teams need to continually test and experiment to learn what’s working. AI can identify these success patterns far faster than a human can. OneShot.ai uses smart automation and AI to help sales teams do more with less, which in a climate of economic uncertainty is a top priority for every company.”
In a rapidly changing and highly competitive space, it’s not just the incorporation of AI that impressed customers and investors—it’s the way this cutting edge technology is being leveraged to create a horizontal solution that addresses every element of outbound sales.
“OneShot.ai isn’t just focused on addressing a narrow problem, they’re creating a salesperson’s personal AI-powered prospecting assistant,” says Moritz Zimmermann, general partner at 42CAP. “I’ve personally experienced the challenge of growing and scaling a sales team. The way we do outbound is due for disruption, and OneShot.ai—led by founders with both deep technical know-how and extensive enterprise sales experience—is well positioned to provide the solution.”
“We’re excited to work with OneShot.ai again,” says Reshma Sohoni, founding partner at Seedcamp. This funding marks the second contribution for Seedcamp, who led the pre-seed round. “The team and technology showed promise from the very beginning, and it has only gotten better since. Plus, the market has spoken. There is significant demand for this solution and customers are coming fast.”
This funding is poised to further accelerate OneShot.ai’s rise after already seeing +300% month-over-month growth through the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. In March, 2023, OneShot.ai was named in the top 10 best early stage tech startups in the UK by TechNation. Series A conversations are already underway.
About OneShot.ai:
OneShot.ai is the autonomous prospecting platform that uses advanced machine learning and generative AI technology to put prospecting on autopilot. Our intelligent platform removes the tedious administrative work of researching prospects, finding leads, creating personalized messaging at scale, and the experimentation required for continuous improvement, allowing salespeople to focus their time on revenue-generating activities. To learn more, please visit us at: www.OneShot.ai.
About 42CAP:
42CAP is a seed stage investment firm based in Munich, Germany. They invest in seed-stage technology-driven companies with global ambition. The team behind 42CAP has a track record of building successful, profitable SaaS companies, working as peers with entrepreneurs who share their fundamental values: Conviction for technology- and data-driven sustainable business models and a true passion for entrepreneurship.
About Seedcamp:
Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy. Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent.