While generative AI is dominating the headlines, Creatio is making news of its own on the strength of its “no code” customer relationship management platform and app-building tools.
Founded in 2014, the company announced it has raised a $200 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation in a round led by Sapphire Ventures with contributions from StepStone Group, Volition Capital, and Horizon Capital.
“The problem we’re solving is addressing the need of knowledge workers,” Creatio co-founder and CEO Katherine Kostereva said. “And we’re talking about 1.7 billion people in the world [who we want to help] automate their workflows with the power of no-code.”
Creatio’s platform is principally used to automate workflows in customer relationship management scenarios. The company offers a variety of applications, from app design platforms to CRM tools, to clients and serves midsize to large enterprises, as they often have more complex processes and workflows.
“The no-code platform allows clients to deploy a platform and copilot very quickly,” Katherine said.
The Boston-based software company employs 700 people across seven global offices including Poland and Ukraine. Creatio has around 750 partners, and its clients include large multinational companies in sectors such as retail, telecoms, pharma, and banking.
“What we deliver to our clients is all front office: sales, customer relationship, marketing, service management processes,” she said. That means the company competes with the likes of Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft and SAP, but Kostereva says that bein. g smaller allows Creatio to be more agile than its larger competitors.
Creatio plans to invest the new funds in no-code governance, workflow automation and applications lifecycle management. It’s looking to improve its AI-assisted development technology to take on more ambitious tasks and plans to expand its library of pre-defined applications that can be dropped into workflows under construction.
Check out the 26-slide pitch deck used to secure the latest funding.
What were the slides in the Creatio pitch deck?
Browse the exact example slides from the pitch deck that Creatio used to raise a $200M round led by Sapphire Ventures.
1. Opportunity/problem slide
Many products are often seen as ‘nice-to-have’ rather than ‘must-have’. In their busy daily routines, consumers and businesses might find a product or solution very useful, yet still delay adopting it, sometimes for no rational reason, choosing instead to stick with the status quo (even if it’s more expensive and/or less efficient).
The purpose of the opportunity/problem slide is to persuade investors that your product is a ‘must-have’ (often referred to as a “selling a painkiller not a vitamin”), meaning that the problem it solves is significant enough that customers are willing to switch and spen on an alternative solution that offers a significant improvement compared to current offerings. Additionally, early slides in a pitch deck are crucial for capturing investors’ interest, as they often decide whether to invest within the first five minutes of a conversation. This makes the problem slide arguably the most pivotal part of any pitch deck.
Creatio’s problem slide adeptly highlights both the problem and the opportunity it presents. It uses compelling facts and figures to support the claim that “Demand for Automation is Growing.” The use of graphics is very effective in illustrating the gap between the number of available developers and the demand for new apps, as well as the number of knowledge workers.
2. Competition slides
Startups often assert that their product outperforms existing competitors and the current status quo. However, founders sometimes overlook that investors consider not only the present competition, but also potential competitors emerging in the future (ie. incumbents expanding to new markets).
It’s crucial for founders to demonstrate a defensible moat that will keep their startup ahead of the ever-innovating competition.
This is precisely what Creatio aims to emphasize in its competition slides. By focusing on being the ‘leader’ with a ‘stronger strategy,’ the goal is to show investors that Creatio is well-equipped to handle shifts in the market and maintain its leading position.
When positioning yourself in the top-right corner of the competitive landscape chart, ensure you can explain clearly and concisely why you belong there.
3. Use-of-funds slide
Investors want to know precisely how founders will use their capital to accelerate the startup to it’s next stage of growth. Pitch decks should generally include broad strokes regarding funds allocation for product development, sales and marketing, horizontal integration, and talent acquisition. Including the key milestones and target runway will demonstrate you have a strong plan for leveraging this investment to accelerate growth and multiple the company’s value before the next funding round.
Separately, founders should consider historic burn rates, equity dilution, and time to profitability in order to make an intelligent decision about the amount to raise. Founders should be prepared to justify assumptions about revenue, expenses, growth, and market conditions with detailed financial docs.
Creatio’s pitch deck excels in this area, offering a comprehensive high-level overview of how the startup plans to allocate the funding. In fact, half of the pitch deck is dedicated to explaining how Creatio intends to use the funds. This detailed approach gives investors confidence, knowing that the founders have a clear and well-thought-out plan.
How-to create your own pitch deck like Creatio
We hope you learned something from the Creatio pitch deck, and that you are able to use these insights for your own business. If you’d like to, you can bookmark it at bestpitchdeck.com/creatio
Although it probably goes without saying that having a successful business (outside just their pitch deck) was integral to their success, it is critical for any startup to ensure your vision is portrayed properly. That’s where crafting the perfect pitch deck comes essential:
You might find our other resources on how-to create a pitch deck helpful, or benefit from using one of our expert-designed templates:
Our team has helped create decks that have closed over $100M+ in deals & funding for leading startups and even VC firms. You can leverage this experience and get a jumpstart on your pitch with one of our easy-to-use presentation templates, one-pagers, or financial models.
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Series A Pitch Deck Template — A pitch deck template for startups and founders raising funding: Smart, actionable slides that work. This is a pitch deck template built specifically for startups, entrepreneurs and founders raising their first seed or Series A round of institutional capital.
Mergers & Acquisitions Pitch Deck Template — Perfect Pitch Deck™ is a template crafted for later-stage businesses entering more sophisticated discussions such as mergers & acquisitions (M&A), late-stage investment (Series C+), or other partnerships & financing opportunities. Our team of experts created this presentation to empower founders to present with confidence to investment banks, private equity (PE) groups, and/or hedge funds (and vice versa).
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