MindTickle Inc. has raised $27 million to accelerate the development of its sales enablement platform and take it worldwide.

The Series B round, which was led by Canaan Partners with participation from Accel, New Enterprise Associates Inc. and Qualcomm Ventures, brings the company’s total financing to $41.3 million. MindTickle said its employee onboarding, microlearning, skills development and coaching software is used by some of the most prominent recent entrants into the public markets, including ForeScout Technologies Inc., Gigamon Inc. and AppDynamics Inc., which was bought early this year just before a planned IPO by Cisco Systems Inc.

MindTickle said its platform goes beyond basic training to address the full range of skills  that sales representatives need to sell complex products. Customers can upload existing sales support materials, such as PowerPoint presentations and videos, and use MindTickle to mold a structured training program. The mobile-focused user interface offers quizzes, role-plays and games along with various metrics to make the training process more engaging and measurable.

The need for sales enablement is growing along with product complexity. A proliferation of high-tech enhancements to even mature products is challenging salespeople to become more knowledgeable about what they sell. That’s one reason nearly 60 percent of companies today have a dedicated sales enablement person, program or function, up from less than 20 percent four years ago, according to CSO Insights.

MindTickle’s data-driven approach enables sales managers to check the progress of their employees through testing and structured role-playing. “For example, if a rep isn’t giving the right kind of introduction at the beginning of a simulated call, there are rules defined at the back end that tell what steps to take,” said Chief Executive Krishna Depura (pictured). Sales managers can also listen in on calls and evaluate sales rep performance using a structured checklist, with the results automatically incorporated into an individualized training regimen.

“Everyone is going toward data-driven sales enablement, whereas before it was a black box,” Depura said.

MindTickle currently has about 150 employees, but plans to expand significantly with the additional funding. Part of the money will go toward adding multilingual capabilities for international expansion. The company also wants to expand its vertical coverage beyond technology and pharmaceuticals into financial services and retail.

Acquisitions are also on the table, Depura said: “There are a lot of pieces we can add.”

Image: MindTickle