The NASDAQ-listed Russian search giant Yandex is among the main contributors to a $4.1 million capital injection in SalesPredict, a SaaS technology provider helping B2B companies increase revenues using predictive analytics.
Founded in 2012, SalesPredict combines and analyzes prospect and customer data from a company’s CRM database, marketing automation solutions, proprietary data sources, social media, and the open web.
SalesPredict thus “helps B2B companies uncover hidden ‘hot’ leads, identify which prospects are most likely to convert to sales, and gain insights that help close deals faster,” according to the company.
The funding – which brings SalesPredict’s total capital investment to $5.3 million – will be used to expand the startup’s global sales and marketing presence.
An Israeli inclination
“We study possible applications of our knowledge and know-how beyond the search area, trying to take advantage of the experience of players in the field of Big Data,” a Yandex press service representative told the Russian business daily Vedomosti, referencing SalesPredict as an example of this approach.
Yandex seems to have an appetite for Israeli startups, with more investments in this country than in any other. In 2010, the Russian company invested in Face.com (initially known as Vizi Labs), a developer of facial recognition technologies that Yandex sold to Facebook in 2012.
Later in 2012, Yandex invested tens of thousands of dollars in TimeBooker, another Israeli startup that is developing an innovative booking solution for small and mid-sized service companies. Yandex has so far maintained their small stake in the company.
Most recently, Yandex acquired KitLocate, the developer of energy-efficient mobile geolocation technology, in March of this year.
