Crossbeam, the first and most powerful Partner Ecosystem Platform, recently raised $76MM from Andreesen Horowitz. Founded in 2018 by Bob Moore and Buck Ryan, Crossbeam is an account mapping and partner acceleration platform.
PLI is an angel investor syndicate made up of executives and operators at leading companies across the tech ecosystem. Our average check size is between $100k-$250K and we generally have ~10 angels participate in an investment.
Crossbeam was the first company we invested in as the Partnership Leaders Investments syndicate back in August 2020. To celebrate this latest round we are sharing what we were excited about then and why we think Crossbeam has an opportunity to be a generational SaaS company.
Cross-organizational Data Collaboration is a Significant Opportunity
Second-party data collaboration is the future of how enterprise companies go-to-market and engage with their customers — for marketing, sales, customer success, and every other function. The teams with the best data win, and Crossbeam enables companies to scale the actionable data they have at an exponential rate. As a partnerships company, Crossbeam was built with collaboration and integration in mind from day one. It means the traditional data silos and challenges of legacy tech do not exist with their platform.
“We’re leveraging Crossbeam to look at three ‘buckets’ of customers: 1) joint customers; 2) our prospect but our partner’s customer; and 3) our customer but our partner’s prospect. I first reached out to Bob (CEO) a few years ago after hearing his story on a SaaStr podcast and having the ‘why didn’t I think about that?’ moment about Crossbeam. Great idea. Great team. Great execution. I’ve used them at a few different companies and it’s fantastic to see their widespread adoption by my peers.” – Jim Misuraca, VP of Strategic Alliances at CM Group
Connecting data between different companies and allowing teams to collaborate with data is such a massive opportunity. Just like CRMs are essential for sales teams, PRMs and account mapping tools are game-changers for partnerships teams. Crossbeam is the only company we met at the time that was thinking about that.
We Believe in the Value of Partnerships & Strong Ecosystems
Partnership Leaders Investments was founded on the value that 1+1 can truly equal 4. Strong partnerships and powerful ecosystems are at the center of our mission, and Crossbeam helps partner professionals forge both with their account mapping platform.
Partnerships surpassed paid search not long ago as the largest revenue-generating channel. In addition to exponentially growing your organization’s earning power, partnerships can enhance your product offering, improve client retention and loyalty, and grow your share of the market.
“I chose to invest in Crossbeam through the Partnership Leaders Syndicate. Not only did I believe in Co Founders, Bob Moore & Buck Ryan but, they are tackling a major pain point in the Partnerships space. As the importance of Ecosystem continues to rise amongst SaaS companies, Crossbeam is enabling us to uncover opportunities much faster than the traditional methods, while enriching the data across various teams from Marketing, Sales and Customer Success.” – Jake Wallace, Head of Global Technology Partnerships at Trustpilot
Crossbeam makes it easy to identify great-fit partnerships, nurture contacts, close deals, and map all of that data in one place. Their platform shows you which organizations you overlap with so you can strategically reach out to ideal opportunities. You’re even able to track partner-influenced revenue, making it easier than ever to prove ROI and justify your ecosystem investment.
The Partnerships Team is Underserved
Despite the growing power of the partnerships team, it’s underserved at nearly every organization — including the largest industry leaders. In fact, while Facebook and Google’s ecosystems are each significant parts of their respective businesses, they still don’t get the same support as other functions in the organization.
“Crossbeam lives and breathes partnerships. They’re the first company to put a stake in the ground to validate our space and are the epitome of partner ecosystems. Their strategic approach was extremely attractive to me, it solved a massive industry challenge, and it’s one I could confidently stand behind as an investor. Bob, his leadership team and entire staff are first class, and I have the utmost confidence in their ability for continued growth.” – Mike Vaccaro, VP of Partnerships at Tray.io
Since there aren’t many organizations building tools for those teams, we wanted to support Crossbeam, which has made waves in the industry. Partnerships teams deserve support and resources. Crossbeam has done a great job of providing those resources and making it easier to justify additional resource allocation and increased spending on the ecosystem.
Get Involved with Partnership Leaders Investments
When Partnership Leaders Investments decides to support an organization, it’s not just about funding — we look to be an all-encompassing growth partner. We’ve partnered with Crossbeam in a variety of ways in the past, most recently, launching our first-annual Partnership Leaders Awards together.
Partnership Leaders Investments is actively seeking new opportunities. Connect with us if you’re a tech or SaaS organization looking to grow in the partnerships realm and raise capital like Crossbeam!
Join The 1850+ Leaders Transforming Partnerships
As a member of Partnership Leaders you will:
- Build and learn with the top partner people at the best companies around the world.
- Increase your impact and accelerate your career with proven resources, tools, and best practices.
- Grow a network of peers, partners, and advisors with common objectives.
