Conversational Marketing Platform Qualified Raises $12 million

San Francisco-based conversational marketing platform Qualified has announced that it has raised $12 million in its Series A round of funding. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. The total funding raised by the startup now stands at $17 million. The company is going to use the funding to improve upon its conversational marketing offerings.

Northwest Venture Partners’ Scott Beechuk will be joining Qualified’s board of directors. Commenting on the round, he said: “The conversational model is simply a better way to connect with new customers. Buyers love the real-time engagement, sellers love instant connections, and marketers have the confidence that every dollar spent on demand generation is maximized.”

“The multi-billion-dollar market for Salesforce automation software is going to adopt this new model, and Qualified is perfectly positioned to capture that demand,” he added.

Qualified was co-founded by former Salesforce executives Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley. The company is tackling a very important B2B marketer pain point by addressing conversational engagement when a buyer arrives on a website. Usually, marketers do not have an idea when a buyer arrives on a website. This affects their pipeline and revenue. Qualified with its solution ties up with Salesforce to give companies a comprehensive view of their visitors and helps them target buyers and start a conversation instantly.