Qualtrics Gets $70 Million Investment from Accel, Sequoia

Enterprise data collection and analysis specialist Qualtrics announced a new partnership with prominent tech investment firms Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital to provide both a range of services and a whopping $70 million in funding. Goals will center on Qualtrics expanding its SaaS offerings beyond market research and enhancing its growth worldwide: In the coming year the company plans to add 250 employees.

This is Accel and Sequoia’s largest-ever joint venture and Qualtrics’ first investment run, having declined offers since its founding in 2002 thanks to its profitability.

“Today most research and data collection is outsourced at great expense, or done internally with tools that are either too basic or much too complex,” said Ryan Smith, Qualtrics CEO and co-founder, in a prepared statement. “We offer end users the do-it-yourself tools and rich analytics they need to be responsive to a fast-changing market, with security and collaboration across the enterprise.”

The company’s product offerings include the Qualtrics Research Suite, with advanced features such as conjoint analysis, branching logic and advanced customization, enabling customers to collect, analyze and act on sizeable amounts of unstructured data without customized programming. Qualtrics has more than 4,000 customers including more than 600 university customers.

Previously, Sequoia and Accel helped to fund Pertino Network’s Series A round for $8.9 million. Sequoia has also invested in cloud firms Appirio and CloudShare.