Why We Invested In Klue
Today Craft Ventures is excited to announce that we are leading the $15 million Series A in Klue, a competitive enablement platform that allows companies to collect, curate and distribute competitive insights in real-time.
Hundreds of companies including Cisco, SAP, and Shopify have already discovered Klue and are using it to stay one step ahead of their competitors.
We invested in Klue for three reasons:
1. We love category-defining SaaS businesses
Competitive intelligence is nothing new. It typically involves a team spending weeks or months collecting data and curating it into decks and pdfs that get distributed to sales, account management, and product teams. These static read-outs become stale the moment they’re distributed. Companies are moving too fast for dusty decks and forgotten wikis to cut it anymore. We’re in an information arms race.
Companies are moving too fast for dusty decks and forgotten wikis to cut it anymore. We’re in an information arms race.
Klue transforms competitive intelligence into real-time, accessible and actionable insights with their competitive enablement platform. Here’s how it works:
- Klue continuously scans the internet and synthesizes findings on competition in real-time. For example, Klue users receive automatic notifications when competitors make changes to their pricing page.
- Klue’s digestible card format, chrome extension, and integration with dozens of collaboration tools like Slack, Salesforce, and Highspot make competitive intel accessible at the critical point of need: in the user’s workflow.
- Klue’s curator-in-the-loop model means the information is relevant and actionable. Klue users and bots stream information to Klue curators who, with the help of Klue’s AI and automation tools, distill and redistribute that information back out to the Klue users.
2. Already the system of record for hundreds of enterprise compete teams
It’s rare to meet a company that has attracted so many happy enterprise customers this early in their journey. Market leaders like Cisco and SAP have embraced Klue because in their hyper-competitive markets, they need every information advantage they can get. Having Klue is like bringing a gun to a knife fight.
Having Klue is like bringing a gun to a knife fight.
In the course of our diligence process, we spoke with dozens of Klue’s customers. It became clear that Klue had become their team’s system of record - their command center for collecting, curating, and distributing competitive intel.
A byproduct of this user love is a natural network effect. The first-mover to implement a competitive enablement platform gains a significant advantage. Soon others copy to stay afloat and eventually it becomes malpractice not to have a CE strategy.
3. Jason is a phenomenal leader who has attracted an A+ team
Jason Smith is the kind of leader people are drawn to. He combines the confidence and decisiveness of a serial entrepreneur (which he is) with Canadian humility and authenticity. Jason is complemented by Klue’s CTO, Sarathy Naicker, a veteran CTO and the co-author of the scripting language, Perl. There’s a lot going on under the hood at Klue: The automated data collection and synthesis is a thorny AI & ML problem that only a technically deft team like Klue’s can architect correctly. Together, Jason and Sarathy have built a great culture and attracted an incredible team. If you’re interested in joining the party, they’re hiring.
We’re excited to support Jason, Sarathy and the Klue team as they define the competitive enablement category and transform the way businesses compete.
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