Qobra, a Paris-based sales software startup, announced it has raised $10.5 million ( €10 million ) in a new Series A round to accelerate growth overseas.  The round was led by U.S. venture firm Singular, with participation from UK-based fund Revenue Syndicate and long-time investor Breega.  The funding comes as Qobra gears up to double its headcount (from about 30 to 60 employees) and break into new markets.  It will be used to enhance the company’s real-time commission management platform and to expand sales and operations in the UK and the U.S.

Funding Round and Expansion Plans

The latest financing follows a €5 million seed round in early 2022, and it gives Qobra fresh runway for global expansion.  Management says the investment will support building out its product and hiring in foreign markets.  In public statements, CEO Antoine Fort noted that Qobra will open a London office in early 2024 to tackle the mature UK market, and that “the United States [is] on our radar” next.  In practical terms, the startup plans to establish a local sales team in North America and adapt its go-to-market strategy for U.S. clients.  The combined funding will also fuel ongoing R&D, including plans to add AI-driven insights into the platform’s commission calculations and forecasts.

Company Background

Qobra’s three co-founders launched the company in 2020 to automate complex sales incentive calculations. Using a cloud-based, no-code platform, Qobra pulls data from CRMs, ERPs and data warehouses (Salesforce, HubSpot, Google BigQuery, etc.) to compute commissions in real time. This replaces the old practice of manually updating spreadsheets each month.  Managers and finance teams can define custom rules for quotas, accelerators and bonuses, and then track progress through a spreadsheet-like interface.  Because the data updates in real time, sales reps get instant visibility into how each sale or achievement affects their pay. The founders – Antoine Fort, Tanguy Moullec and Axel Poitral (all graduates of France’s CentraleSupélec school) – built Qobra to solve what they saw as a “multi-trillion dollar” problem: businesses worldwide spend an estimated $2–3 trillion annually on variable sales compensation, yet over 90% of sales compensation spreadsheets contain errors.

Qobra targets mid-size and large B2B companies (roughly 100+ employees) where manual commission processes become too slow and error-prone.  The startup has already signed about 100 corporate customers across more than ten countries, spanning Europe, North America and beyond.  Notable users include Doctolib (healthcare marketplace), CoachHub (skill development), real estate site SeLoger and payroll fintech PayFit.  Clients report significant efficiency gains – for example, one customer said Qobra cut the time to close commissions by several days each month.  These early successes have given Qobra a foothold in different verticals (tech, advertising, pharma, real estate, financial services, etc.), setting the stage for a broader push abroad.

U.S. Market Strategy

With the new funding, Qobra is executing a deliberate transatlantic strategy.  The immediate focus is on the UK (often seen as a gateway for French startups), with a London office planned for 2024.  Looking further ahead, Qobra plans to establish a presence in the United States.  CEO Fort has emphasized that the U.S. market — which is larger and more mature for sales automation tools — is very much in view.  The company has already begun courting North American clients: in fact, Qobra’s customer base includes companies in the U.S. and Canada, indicating early interest from across the Atlantic.  To support this expansion, Qobra will hire additional sales, marketing and support staff with experience in the U.S. market.  The strategy is to adapt marketing and integrations to local needs (for example by partnering with American CRM and payroll vendors) while leveraging the product’s multilingual, multi-currency capabilities.  By opening a U.S. subsidiary and hiring on-the-ground teams, Qobra aims to build credibility and tailor its service for American companies.

Competitive Landscape

The market for automated sales compensation software is crowded and well-funded.  Qobra’s main competitors include U.S.-based startups like CaptivateIQ (recently acquired by Upland Software) and QuotaPath, both of which offer real-time commission tracking tools.  In Europe, French rival Palette provides similar services, and larger multinational players like SAP’s Xactly (formerly CallidusCloud) and IBM’s Varicent also vie for enterprise accounts.  Each vendor promises to eliminate Excel headaches and boost sales performance with analytics dashboards.  For Qobra, differentiation will depend on its user-friendly interface, easy integrations and competitive pricing.  The startup also touts features like flexible “what-if” planning for commission scenarios, which some established tools lack.  Nonetheless, winning business in the U.S. will mean contending with well-known incumbents and aggressive American startups that already have a local footprint.  In this tough field, Qobra’s edge so far has been its focus on mid-market SaaS companies and its all-real-time data model — a selling point it will need to emphasize to gain market share.

Outlook

Qobra’s ambitious expansion comes amid a broader resurgence of European SaaS startups on the world stage.  In recent years, analysts have noted that Europe’s software ecosystem is catching up: venture funding for cloud and SaaS companies in Europe and Israel now runs at roughly half the level of the U.S., up from just 36% a few years ago.  Investors see Europe producing its share of “unicorns” and innovative cloud platforms, often fueled by trends like AI and remote work.  If Qobra can translate its European growth into American success, it could tap into the huge sales software market estimated in the trillions of dollars.  The challenge will be execution: scaling operations overseas, adjusting to different customer buying habits, and outpacing both local and legacy competitors.  For now, the investors backing Qobra are betting that its high-profile clients and clever technology will help it carve out a niche.  In the long run, Qobra’s fate will also signal how easily French and European SaaS firms can break into North America.  For an industry that thrives on data and trust, proving itself in the competitive U.S. market could make Qobra a poster child of Europe’s next wave of global software champions.