Clay raises $115M Series D at $7.1B valuation for AI sales automation

Clay secures major funding round as AI sales tools gain traction

Clay Labs Inc. has closed a $115 million Series D funding round led by Wellington Management, with participation from Alphabet's CapitalG, Sequoia, Meritech, and other investors. The round values the AI-powered sales automation platform at $7.1 billion, representing a $2.1 billion increase from its valuation at the beginning of 2026, according to details first reported by SiliconANGLE.

The New York-based startup serves more than 17,000 customers, including major AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI. According to The New York Times, Clay's annualized revenue is projected to reach $200 million by the end of the current quarter, and the company achieved brief profitability earlier this year.

How Clay automates B2B prospecting

Clay addresses a core challenge in business-to-business sales: the time-consuming process of identifying and researching potential customers. The platform allows sales teams to describe their target audience in natural language—for instance, requesting cybersecurity professionals at large enterprises—and uses AI to surface relevant leads.

Beyond basic company information, Clay identifies business events that may signal sales opportunities, such as retailers opening new locations or companies announcing expansions. The platform aggregates data from more than 200 external sources through a single contract, eliminating the need for sales teams to manage multiple vendor relationships.

A feature called Waterfall automates the typically manual process of enriching lead records. It sequentially searches external databases until it locates the required information, then prioritizes leads based on factors including company size and recent business developments. The system automatically refreshes datasets when new information becomes available.

From data to outreach

Once Clay identifies prospects, its AI generates personalized outreach emails tailored to each lead. The platform can also create customized sales presentations, follow-up messages, and advertising campaigns based on prospect engagement.

Users can build custom AI agents that combine Clay's automation capabilities to execute multi-step sales workflows. These agents can be configured to output data in specific formats aligned with existing sales processes.

"We started by aggregating the best data for B2B companies. Then we built the infrastructure to run any personalized campaign on top of it," said co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin. "Now we're building agents that can help grow your company for you."

Why it matters

Clay's rapid valuation growth and customer adoption reflect broader enterprise demand for AI tools that deliver measurable productivity gains rather than experimental features. By consolidating data access, automating research tasks, and generating personalized outreach at scale, the platform addresses specific workflow bottlenecks that directly impact sales team efficiency. The company's path to profitability and its customer roster of leading AI firms suggest that sales automation represents one of the clearer near-term use cases for applied AI in business operations.

These details were first reported by SiliconANGLE.