Affinity Raises $80M to Revolutionize Deal Closing

The Importance of Relationships in Dealmaking

Successful deal closures are fundamentally driven by strong relationships. However, cultivating these long-term connections often involves managing a significant amount of historical data, encompassing email exchanges, documentation, and meeting records.

Affinity's Approach to Relationship Intelligence

Affinity, as described by its co-founder and CEO Ray Zhou, aims to leverage what they term “data exhaust” – the totality of everyday interactions and communications. Through the application of machine learning analysis, the platform delivers insights identifying individuals within an organization who possess the greatest potential for securing initial meetings and ultimately finalizing agreements.

Recent Funding and Company Growth

The company recently announced the successful completion of a $80 million Series C funding round. This investment was spearheaded by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Advance Venture Partners, Sprints Capital, Pear Ventures, Sway Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Teamworthy, and Brian N. Sheth of ECT Capital Partners.

This new capital brings Affinity’s total funding to $120 million since its inception in 2014.

Target Industries and Market Need

Affinity concentrates its efforts on sectors such as investment banking, private equity, venture capital, consulting, and real estate. Zhou explained to TechCrunch that these industries lack CRM systems or networking tools specifically designed to address the unique requirements of enduring relationships.

Origins and Founding Principles

The company was founded by Stanford graduates Zhou and Shubham Goel. They recognized a gap in the market: while software solutions existed for transactional relationships, a suitable option for managing the complexities of long-term relationship development was absent.

Data Accuracy and CRM Market Trends

Data indicates that a substantial portion – up to 90% – of company profiles and contact details within conventional CRM systems are either incomplete or outdated.

This observation aligns with a report from Gartner, a market research firm, which revealed a 12.6% growth in the global CRM software market, reaching $69 billion in 2020.

Relationships as a Key Asset

“The significance extends beyond mere sales,” Zhou stated. “Our perspective is that relationships represent the world’s largest industry. While some may hold differing views, relationships are a valuable asset, a form of currency that distinguishes successful entities.”

A New Generation of CRM

Zhou described Affinity as having created “a new breed of CRM.” This platform automates data input, continuously updating information and incorporating details like revenue, employee count, and funding data from proprietary sources.

This allows for the assignment of a score to potential opportunities, thereby enhancing the likelihood of closing deals.

Future Plans and Expansion

The newly acquired funding will be allocated to expanding the sales, marketing, and engineering teams. This expansion will support the development of new products and cater to a growing customer base.

Currently employing 125 individuals, the company anticipates exceeding 200 employees within the next year.

Platform Performance and Customer Base

To date, Affinity’s platform has processed over 18 trillion emails and 213 million calendar events. It currently facilitates more than 500,000 new introductions and tracks 450,000 deals each month.

The company serves a diverse clientele of over 1,700 customers across 70 countries, including prominent organizations like Bain Capital Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, SoftBank Group, Nike, Qualcomm, and Twilio.

Investor Perspective

Tyler Sosin, a partner at Menlo Ventures, initially connected with Zhou and Goel while the firm was evaluating CRM companies. However, it wasn’t until Menlo itself sought a more advanced platform that Affinity resurfaced as a viable solution.

User Experience and Platform Benefits

Having utilized Affinity personally, Sosin highlighted the platform’s ability to deliver relevant data and “eliminate the tedious manual data entry and friction inherent in traditional processes.” He also praised the platform’s intuitive design.

Defining a New Category

“We’ve consistently been interested in advancing the evolution of CRMs, and Affinity is establishing itself as a leader in the emerging category of relationship intelligence, achieving significant success within the private capital markets,” Sosin commented.

“Their growth rate is impressive, and they are addressing a complex challenge that few other companies in the space are tackling effectively.”