Aligned Raises $5.8 Million to Streamline B2B Dealmaking

Aligned has raised $5.8 million to develop a network that aims to streamline B2B dealmaking.

The company will use the new funding to continue building out its B2B buyer-seller network that is designed to enable more effective collaboration and eliminate the need for email threads, attachments and links to spreadsheets, Aligned said in a Tuesday (March 2) press release.

“B2B buying and selling is a chaotic process involving numerous stakeholders and often months of back and forth, with many blind spots and moving parts to control,” Aligned CEO and Co-founder Gal Aga said in the release. “These modern times present a game-changing opportunity to make buying and selling more impactful for both sides, even enjoyable.”

PYMNTS research has found that 85% of B2B buyers value a positive purchasing experience with their vendors as much as their products and services.

In addition, 69% of B2B buyers want their vendors to provide novel ways for them to access products and services, according to the “Global B2B Payments Playbook,” a PYMNTS and Worldpay collaboration.

As B2B companies take to digital channels to manage business functions, B2B buyers want the same sort of seamless experiences that they have during B2C transactions.

Sixty-seven percent of B2B buyers have switched vendors to find a company that offers a more consumer-like experience, according to the “Optimizing SMB Payments” report, a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration.

With its buyer-seller network, Aligned aims to streamline sales workflows by creating online “rooms” in which sellers and buyers can share resources, coordinate next steps, communicate with all shareholders, and build and sign proposals, according to the press release.

In addition to allowing sellers and buyers to execute all aspects of a deal within the platform, Aligned’s network also enables the creation of public profiles and connections with prospects, the release said.

James Currier, general partner at NFX, the venture firm that led the seed round together with Hetz Ventures, said in the release that “Aligned has identified a major gap in the sales tech market.”

“By creating the first and only network for buyers and sellers that’s fully focused on improving the customer journey, Aligned is tapping into the root of B2B sales inefficiency to pioneer the next household name for buyer-seller interactions,” Currier said in the release.

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