Cognism Raises $12m to Expand Across Europe

Cognism, the world’s leading all-in-one globally compliant prospecting solution, today announces it has raised $12M in funding.

The funding round was led by AXA Venture Partners and is an extension to the $10M already raised with PeakSpan Capital. Since that last funding round, Cognism has opened an office in New York and expanded its three offices in the UK, Europe and Asia. The company also enhanced its AI expertise with James Hodson, former Head of AI at Bloomberg, joining as Chief Science Officer.

In the five years since it was founded, Cognism has grown to become the leading B2B data provider in Europe. The introduction of the GDPR in May 2018 provided Cognism with the opportunity to build a leading compliant product. Its foothold in the UK and Europe has allowed Cognism to build up an exceptional network of localised regulatory knowledge. Through its association with a top UK law firm focused on data protection, Cognism has built a world-leading GDPR compliant prospecting solution.

Cognism’s dedication to adhering to the GDPR is matched by the strength of its revenue growth. The company has continued to grow over 150% each year and expects that to continue. Cognism’s B2B lead generation tools are trusted by over 500 clients internationally, across industries such as sales, marketing, recruitment and technology.

Axa Venture Partners has decided to invest in Cognism as it prepares for the next stage in its growth. James Isilay, Cognism’s CEO, had this to say about the funding announcement:

“I’m delighted that AXA Venture Partners is investing in Cognism. It’s a ringing endorsement of how hard everyone in the company has worked to make us Europe’s leading go-to-market data provider. At Cognism, we have always wanted to do things differently, from providing innovative solutions to our clients’ lead generation challenges to remaining committed to full compliance with the GDPR. No other business in our space can boast of these achievements. Our partnership with AXA ensures that Cognism is a debt-free company and affords us a short runway to profitability in 2021.”

AXA Venture Partners has a proud history of investing in great entrepreneurs and outstanding companies. Imran Akram, General Partner at AXA, commented:

“Cognism’s integrated data and software platform solves major pain points in the B2B marketing and sales workflow and it didn’t take long for us to get excited about what the team have built. We are excited to help in this next phase of international expansion and partnerships and it’s exactly in our core focus stage of growth.”

Cognism intends to use the AXA funding to open more offices across Europe and deepen its localised regulatory expertise; this will help the company to fulfil its goal of setting the global standard for data compliance in 2020 and beyond.

About Cognism

Cognism is the world’s leading all-in-one globally compliant B2B prospecting solution. Powered by patented AI technology, it provides organisations with compliant B2B data and a suite of sales acceleration tools to help action it. Cognism enables its worldwide business customers to find and deliver new revenue, faster.

Cognism is trusted by over 3000 clients across sales, marketing, recruitment, events and technology. Adzooma, Vidyard, Clifford Chance and Frost & Sullivan are just some of the world-famous brands who benefit from Cognism’s leading all-in-one prospecting solution.

About AVP

AXA Venture Partners (AVP) is a venture capital firm investing in high-growth, technology-enabled companies. AVP has built, in less than 5 years, a unique investment platform specialized in tech investments with $800 million of assets under management (“AUM”) through three pillars of investment expertise: Early Stage, Growth Stage and Fund of Funds.

To date, AVP has invested in more than 45 Early and Growth equity deals and more than 15 Funds. The AVP team operates globally with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. Beyond investments, AVP provides unique access to business development opportunities helping portfolio companies to scale globally and accelerate their growth.