Cognism Raises £2.8m Funding Round led by Oliver Wyman to Expand Enterprise Solution

LONDON, January 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Cognism, the end-to-end sales acceleration solution providing organisations with a more intelligent way to prospect, today announces that it has raised £2.8 million in a funding round from investors including Oliver Wyman, South Central Ventures, LCIF, Newable and other existing investors. The funding follows strong growth since Cognism was founded in 2016.

Cognism has grown rapidly in revenue in 2018, experiencing 23% monthly growth. The company was seeking expansion capital and selected Oliver Wyman to partner with in order to bring its platform to the Enterprise level, alongside South Central Ventures who remains the lead investor in the company. The funding will primarily be used to enhance the solution for Enterprises and also expand the offering into the Financial Services sector.

James Isilay, CEO, Cognism comments: "Cognism is moving beyond sales intelligence and applying its patented machine intelligence technology to understand the revenue challenges at the Enterprise level. With our new investment and collaboration with Oliver Wyman, we will be able to introduce our pioneering Revenue AI technology internationally to the top corporates of the world, driving faster top-line revenue growth."

James continues, "There is a natural fit between the data and analytics the Cognism platform provides and the strategy that can then be derived to enhance revenue at the Enterprise level. We are keen to showcase this value to this sector and hope our collaboration with Oliver Wyman will propel us forward and continue our strong growth."

Kai Upadek, Partner at Oliver Wyman comments: "Our clients are continuously looking for new ways to accelerate growth. Cognism technology will provide our clients with dynamic insights into their existing client base, enabling them to develop more targeted solutions and improving sales success. At the same time, Cognism technology will allow our clients to make a step change in their prospecting efforts. Cognism's data asset will allow our clients to identify prospects matching detailed personas, leveraging data on over 400M companies and individuals."

"It is exciting to see Cognism developing at such a pace and moving towards servicing the Enterprise level customers. Developing its product offering beyond pure sales intelligence by applying proprietary machine intelligence technology positions Cognism as one of the leading companies in this space.

Collaboration with Oliver Wyman will enable Cognism to polish its solutions to better address the needs of Enterprise level customers, thus enabling them to enhance their revenue growth. We are proud to support Cognism on this exciting journey," says Tatjana Zabasu Mikuž, Managing Partner at SCV.

Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, said: "This investment is great news for the capital's world-leading tech sector. The Mayor and I are committed to doing all we can to support innovative small businesses like Cognism. They make a fantastic contribution to our economy and this is further proof that London is open for business."

About Cognism 

Cognism is an end-to-end sales acceleration solution that provides sales organisations with a more efficient way to prospect. Delivered as a software service (SaaS), with its unique data asset and compliance engine, Cognism is helping to enrich CRM records, stream leads into the funnel and is using artificial intelligence to surface opportunities and identify customer trends. Cognism is a pure AI sales technology company that generates prospect data at scale, cleaning and enriching it, and by that helps sales teams grow and scale across all levels of the sales process. Based in London, England and Skopje, Macedonia, Cognism was founded by James Isilay and Stjepan Buljat. Cognism is backed by South Central Ventures,  Netcetera, Startup Funding Club, LCIF, Newable, Tsingbay Venture Capital, Tom James, James Hodson and others.

About Oliver Wyman 

Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting. With offices in 50+ cities across nearly 30 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm has more than 5,000 professionals around the world who work with clients to optimize their business, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies [NYSE: MMC]. For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com. Follow Oliver Wyman on Twitter @OliverWyman.

About South Central Ventures 

With offices in Belgrade, Zagreb and Skopje, South Central Ventures (SCV) is investing in the most attractive tech companies in the Western Balkans. The €40 million Enterprise Innovation Fund (ENIF) is dedicated primarily to early stage and growth investments. These are intended to fuel the international business expansion and growth of the most promising companies with good traction, vision and proven ability to grow and develop into globally viable businesses. ENIF is supported by the Western Balkan Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility. For more information, visit www.sc-ventures.com. Follow SCV on Twitter @VenturesSC.

The London Co-Investment Fund  

The London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) is delivered by Funding London and Capital Enterprise. It was established by the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP), which contributed £25m to the fund, and is supported by the Mayor of London. For more information on LCIF, please visit https://lcif.co/.