Clay

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Clay is a New York-based software company that builds AI-powered sales automation tools. Founded in 2017, it originally launched a personal relationship-management app backed by $8 million in seed funding; it later pivoted to go-to-market software that aggregates data from more than 100 sources, helping sales and marketing teams enrich prospect lists and automate personalized outreach. Its customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Airbnb and DoorDash, and by late 2025 the company reported about $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2017
   Founded

   Kareem Amin and Nicolae Rusan founded Clay in New York, initially building flexible workflow and data tools aimed at making software development easier for non-specialists.

2. 2020
   Seed funding

   The company raised a total of $8 million in seed funding across 2019 and 2020, led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from General Catalyst, for a personal relationship-management product.

3. 2021
   Pivot to sales automation

   Varun Anand joined and later became a co-founder as the company shifted focus to AI-powered go-to-market software for sales and marketing teams.

4. 2025
   Series C and $100M ARR

   Clay raised $100 million in a Series C led by CapitalG at a $3.1 billion valuation and crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

5. 2026
   Series D

   The company raised $115 million in a Series D led by Wellington Management at a $7.1 billion valuation, serving more than 17,000 customers.