InsideSales $50 million round includes another Microsoft investment

InsideSales $50 million round includes another Microsoft investment. InsideSales, a predictive analytics platform which helps salespeople focus on finding and engaging prospects at the right time and in the right way, announced a $50 million round today with a couple of strategic investors — Microsoft and the Irish government. The round was led by Polaris Capital, a long time investor, along with newcomers QuestMark Partners, and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, the venture funding arm of the Irish government. With today’s investment, the company has raised over $250 million. InsideSales is built on an artificial intelligence platform that uses Neuralytics, which the company describes a “a predictive and prescriptive self-learning engine.” The idea is to give sales personnel information on when and how to contact a prospect with the goal, of course, of increasing sales. While Elkington was clearly pleased by the cash infusion, he seemed most enamored by the strategic investors. He said he wasn’t really looking for additional money, but while visiting Ireland, which has an active tech ecosystem, the government introduced him to a number of key stakeholders. Meanwhile, the company had also been working on deepening their partnership with Microsoft, which invested in the 2015 round (along with rival Salesforce). Polaris began to pull the whole thing together and when all was said and done, they had a cool $50 million. He also downplayed the idea of an IPO, but said that obviously at some point he wants to return the investment of his employees and investors.