Apollo.io,
the most intelligent data-first engagement platform for sales and
marketing teams, today announced that it has hired Jim Benton as CEO.
Apollo offers an integrated platform for predictive prospecting, sales
engagement, and actionable analytics. The platform allows clients to
link existing CRMs such as Salesforce with proprietary data collected
from more than 200 million prospects at 10 million companies –
connecting sales teams with the right potential customers at the right
time.
Benton brings a wealth of sales and data experience to the Apollo.io
team: from his time as an early employee at Evite.com, to leading
partnerships at Ticketmaster.com and later scaling ClearSlide from a
two-person company to a Series C funded, world-class GTM organization.
ClearSlide raised a total of $89M in funding before being acquired by
Corel in 2017.
“Jim Benton brings to the table really singular know-how and insight,
all earned from his time helping grow some very impressive companies,”
said Apollo founder and COO Tim Zheng. “We know that Jim understands our
vision for Apollo and we’re extremely excited to partner with him on
this journey. We’re certain his enthusiasm, knowledge, and leadership
will help steer Apollo towards an exciting future.”
“We are thrilled that Jim is joining Apollo as its next CEO,” added
Abhishek Sharma of Nexus Venture Partners, Apollo’s Series A lead
investor. “He has vast experience in building and scaling teams, as well
as a keen firsthand understanding of the pain points of sales
professionals. Since we started working with Apollo, the business has
quadrupled. It is a very exciting point in Apollo’s trajectory. Jim’s
leadership will be invaluable as the company embarks on its next phase
of growth.”
The hire is another milestone in a run of successes for Apollo, a
graduate of the winter 2016 Y Combinator batch. The company has received
$9M in funding and was one of the few YC graduates profitable
immediately upon leaving the accelerator. A recipient of the SOC 2
accreditation, this past month Apollo received the ISO 27001
certification, one of the most recognized information security standards
that, prior to being awarded, requires a comprehensive review from an
independent auditor.
Benton is equally enthused to partner with Apollo founders Tim Zheng,
Roy Chung and Ray Li. “When I discovered Apollo late last year, I knew I
had to meet the founders,” said Benton. “I sent them an email that said,
‘What you’re doing is spot on, and I’d love to come by and introduce
myself.”
“When you combine a remarkable team with a magical product that solves a
large and expensive GTM problem, you no doubt have the chance to become
one of the next truly special Silicon Valley companies. You have the
chance to really help businesses around the world to connect their
solutions with those that need them most.”
Benton graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in finance.
He received his professional start at AT&T and is a regular speaker at
conferences including the AA-ISP’s Inside Sales Conference and TechWeek.
ABOUT APOLLO
Apollo is the most intelligent data-first engagement platform that
enables sales reps, sales leaders, and marketing to work together from a
unified platform that combines a proprietary market-leading B2B database
of 200 million prospects across 10 million companies, powerful email and
phone engagement workflows, dynamic scoring, and AI insights together to
help companies reach their full market potential. With seamless
integration with common CRMs (Salesforce, Hubspot) as well as email
clients (Gmail, Outlook, Sendgrid), Apollo is the foundation for an
entire end-to-end sales strategy. Backed by Nexus Venture Partners and Y
Combinator, Apollo was founded by Tim Zheng, Roy Chung and Ray Li and is
based in San Francisco, California. For more information visit www.apollo.io.
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