Clay secures a new round at a $3B valuation, sources say

Clay, a sales automation startup, has raised a Series C round at an approximate $3 billion valuation, led by CapitalG, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal.

Clay and CapitalG didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

The new round comes just a month after the New York startup announced that it will allow most of its employees to sell some of their shares at a $1.5 billion valuation. That secondary deal, known as a tender offer, was led by Sequoia, which agreed to purchase up to $20 million in employee stock.

While it may seem that employees who sold shares at a much smaller price than the company is worth now got a bad deal, they’ll likely have another chance to sell more stock at a higher valuation next year. Kareem Amin, Clay’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch in May that he hopes to do tender offers on an annual basis.

Clay was founded in 2017, but it didn’t hit its stride until a few years ago, when Amin decided to pivot the startup’s focus to empowering salespeople and marketers with AI, helping them discover key data and automate their go-to-market strategies. Clay allows salespeople to find and update prospective customer lists and write personalized outreach emails. 

Today, Clay’s tools are used by thousands of customers, ranging from large companies like OpenAI, HubSpot, and Canva to over 100 small consulting agencies that help other businesses utilize Clay for their go-to-market efforts.

The company competes with sales tech platforms including ZoomInfo, Lusha, and Apollo.io, as well as newer offerings Unify and Common Room. 

Besides Sequoia, existing investors in Clay include Meritech Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Maple VC, First Round Capital, and Box Group.