Silicon Valley Exec becomes CEO at Apollo.io

Apollo.io, a startup that helps sales and marketing teams reach the right prospects, has a new chief executive — Jim Benton, founder of ClearSlide, which was acquired by Corel in 2017.

In addition to founding ClearSlide, which raised $89M in funding from Felicis, Greylock, Bessemer, Social Capital, and Comcast Ventures, Benton was an early employee at Evite.com and led partnerships at Ticketmaster.

Apollo.io provides a platform for sales and marketing teams for predictive prospecting, sales engagement, and analytics. The startup integrates with CRMs and email clients to support end-to-end sales strategies.

According to its website, the company “empowers teams to reach the right contacts at the right time, with the perfect message.”

Benton said he met the founders after cold-emailing them. “When I discovered Apollo late last year, I knew I had to meet the founders. What you’re doing is spot on, and I’d love to come by and introduce myself.”

According to Abhishek Sharma of Nexus Venture Partners, Apollo’s Series A lead investor, “He has vast experience in building and scaling teams, as well as a keen firsthand understanding of the pain points of sales professionals.”

Commented Apollo’s co-founder and COO Tim Zheng, “Jim Benton brings to the table really singular know-how and insight, all earned from his time helping grow some very impressive companies.”

Apollo.io has raised $9M in funding and was incubated by Y Combinator. The company was founded by Tim Zheng, Roy Chung and Ray Li and is based in San Francisco.