Propel, a modern Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) provider built 100 percent on the Salesforce platform, announced today that it has raised a $4.2 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Cloud Apps Capital Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and SignalFire. The investment will help the company propel its sales and marketing efforts, as well as accelerate development of its modern cloud PLM solution for manufacturers. Matt Holleran from Cloud Apps Capital Partners will join the company’s board of directors.
Propel has created a customer-centric PLM solution built on Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform. Unlike legacy PLM systems that are limited to managing hardware, Propel helps everyone involved in launching new products—including engineers, software developers, sales channels and partners—coordinate all the product, customer and service information needed for a product to be successful. With Propel, manufacturers of all sizes can capture customer requests, collaborate on the content that defines modern products, and ensure customers embrace products after purchase.
Propel was founded by manufacturing, PLM and cloud veterans. Ray Hein, Chief Executive Officer, was an early employee at Agile Software (now Oracle), serving in a number of positions, including VP of Product Strategy. He also was EVP at Centric Software, a PLM provider for retailers, and SVP at Apttus, a leading Salesforce partner. Ron Hess, Chief Technology Officer, was at Salesforce for over 7 years and also served as a principal architect at Kenandy, a cloud ERP company built on the Salesforce platform. Brian Sohmers, Chief Product Officer, tripled revenues at Equilar, where he was General Manager and EVP of Products. The Propel team is joined by experts from Agile Software, Oracle and SAP.
“After my experience with so many product and manufacturing companies, it became clear to me that they needed a modern way to manage the entire product experience,” said Ray Hein, CEO, Propel. “Our vision is to help everyone involved in products better engage with customers, launch more successful products and propel their business. Cloud Apps Capital, Salesforce Ventures and SignalFire are experienced and visionary investors, and their funding will help us lay the foundation for our customers’ and our company’s success.”
“Propel is in a unique position to redefine how global manufacturing companies deliver products to their customers, channels and partners,” said Matt Holleran, General Partner, Cloud Apps Capital Partners. “The team has a proven track record in solving complex manufacturing problems and developing products for global enterprises. By building PLM on a modern cloud platform, Propel offers a powerful enterprise-class cloud app that breaks the mold of legacy PLM solutions.”
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