Rocketlane raises $24M in Series B to create a post-sales CRM for professional services teams

Professional services teams in companies are like the A-Team, a group of individuals who help clients extract the real value of a product or service they have purchased. They deliver on the mission of the company and the promise of the sales teams. However, today, their work is stifled by a mix-and-match of tools and legacy systems. Enabling them to succeed and thrive in their work, workflow automation platform Rocketlane is today announcing a $24 million Series B funding round as it expands the opportunity for professional services teams with AI capabilities.

The funding round was co-led by 8VC, Matrix Partners India, and Nexus Venture Partners. With this, it brings the total funds raised to $45m.

Rocketlane has broadened its proposition from supporting customer onboarding to doubling down on professional services teams with their needs. Most teams manage their processes using a manual patchwork of siloed PSA tools or spreadsheets. The result is project delays and a hit to profitability. In contrast, Rocketlane gives professional services teams visibility into every aspect of a project — progress made, stakeholders involved, pending/completed tasks, and delayed items, helping teams prioritize tasks that need their attention while creating an avenue for smooth communication with clients.

Over the last year, Rocketlane has tripled its revenue and reached over 500 customers, including enterprise companies that have switched to Rocketlane from legacy Professional Services Automation (PSA) tools. Recent customer wins include industry-leading names like OpenGov, LivePerson, Fivetran, Personio, and Zenoti among others.

Srikrishnan Ganesan, CEO & Co-founder, Rocketlane commented: “Our unique combination of high-velocity innovation and robust capabilities sets us apart, and has helped us consistently win large, forward-thinking customers, including public companies. With this new investment, we are committed to accelerating our AI roadmap and redefining the client portal experience,” adding, “We have equipped ourselves to handle the challenges of rapid growth, and continue delivering exceptional value to our clients.”

Nav Kalra, VP of Professional Services at OpenGov, a Rocketlane customer said, “In a sea of legacy tools, Rocketlane stands out as a modern, disruptive force in the PSA software landscape with its all-in-one platform. The intuitive interface and unparalleled client-facing experience make managing client projects a breeze. We’re thrilled to partner with Rocketlane as we continue to revolutionize the way we work.”

A growing segment of the company’s customers are in the AI SaaS category. Although onboarding is challenging for any SaaS business, those in AI tend to have more complex deployments, and as a result more complex needs. Rocketlane helps SaaS providers provide an accelerated onboarding journey that holds customers accountable, shortens time-to-value, and helps begin expansion conversations earlier (which increases Net Revenue Retention), right from the first touchpoint.

In parallel, Rocketlane has launched its own AI functionality with more capabilities in the coming months. The new funding will significantly accelerate Rocketlane’s AI roadmap, enabling the development of advanced features and capabilities that enhance client project delivery. As enterprises focus more on leveraging AI, Rocketlane’s AI-driven capabilities for resource management, efficiency, and productivity are expected to provide a competitive edge.

This growth follows another significant milestone for the company. Rocketlane was crowned the G2 Momentum Leader in the PSA category for three consecutive quarters, in addition to securing 199 other G2 badges in the Spring 2024 report. Today, Rocketlane is the go-to choice for services firms that want to elevate their project delivery experience and optimize their utilization margins.

The company was founded in April 2020 by second-time entrepreneur trio — Srikrishnan Ganesan, Vignesh Girishankar, and Deepak Bala. Previously, the trio built a successful in-app messaging (FreshChat) startup that was acquired by Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) in 2015 and started Rocketlane in response to problems they faced onboarding their own customers to FreshChat.

“Rocketlane has reshaped enterprise client project delivery, replacing tired, legacy PSA approaches with elegant software and deployment,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, Partner at 8VC. “Speed and agility matter when you become the leader in a category like customer onboarding. Rocketlane has achieved precisely that since their Series A, showing themselves to be both visionaries and incredibly hard-nosed executors. We are thrilled to continue supporting Rocketlane and Sri, Deepak, and Vignesh, founders who lead with a rare blend of thought, culture, and action.”

Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Nexus Ventures Partners, added: “We are thrilled to double down on backing Sri and the team at Rocketlane as they transform the PSA and customer onboarding categories with their industry-leading, AI-powered product and fast-growing list of marquee customers.”

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India, added: “The Rocketlane team has a great opportunity to replace legacy PSA software with their AI roadmap and great user experience. The company has executed this vision with rapid adoption and has solidified its industry-leading position. We are excited to reinforce our commitment to them.”

To date, the company has seen remarkable success with key customers such as Icertis, Drift, Moveworks, and Clari.

Rocketlane customer Siva Rajamani, CEO, Everstage commented: “We have accelerated customer wins by 35%, and helped our post-sales teams build stronger partnerships with customers from the start of their journey. Rocketlane elevates our customer experience in delivery with strong automation and consistency into our execution with customers”.

As part of its growth strategy, Rocketlane is excited to announce the appointment of Rao Adavikolanu as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Rao’s expertise will be instrumental in driving Rocketlane’s market presence and strategic initiatives.

Looking ahead, Rocketlane is committed to attracting more top-tier talent and executing its AI-first roadmap to make onboarding and project deliveries chaos-free. Srikrishnan Ganesan added: “The team is excited about our upcoming innovations–especially the unique AI capabilities and the first-of-its-kind dynamic client portal in this space–that will expand the gap between Rocketlane and the competition”.