End-to-end sales acceleration platform Cognism has raised Series B funding led by PeakSpan Capital, bringing its total funding to just over $16.5 million.

Founded in 2016 by James Isilay and Stjepan Buljat, Cognism raised its initial funding in 2017, and saw accounting rate of return (ARR) growth of over 4x in 2018.

The end-to-end sales accleration platform uses AI to provide businesses with a

blend of real-time company, people and event data

. The company has created its own AI engine, Revenue AI, aiming to provide a breakthrough in how data can be structured to facilitate prospecting and lead generation.

James Isilay, CEO at Cognism, said: “These new funds from PeakSpan mark the beginning of an exciting expansion for Cognism, giving us the resources to expand globally. Having been granted our first

machine learning patent

in December 2018, Cognism is now building a portfolio of IP which will drive the next evolution of sales and marketing technology.”

Cognism will use the funds to open offices in Boston and Singapore, as well as expanding its machine learning team. Having already acquired two blue-chip financial clients in Asia through its partnership with Oliver Wyman, the company thinks investment here will be a ‘promising tonic’ compared with barriers to trade growth in Europe and the US.

Matt Melymuka, co-founder and partner at PeakSpan, said: “Cognism’s

pragmatic application of AI

, which underpins the whole solution suite, is paving the way for a new category focused on turning disparate data points into coordinated insights to drive predictive and prescriptive lead generation and improve conversion across all engagements.”