YesPress Profile — SaaS • CRM • San Francisco
The CRM that started in a living room and ended up running customer relationships for 1.5 million people.
Founded in Perth, Australia in 2009, Insightly became one of the most globally distributed CRM platforms in the SMB and mid-market space - without once chasing a flashy Series D. It just kept growing.
Anthony Smith did not start Insightly at a Stanford accelerator or out of a Menlo Park garage. He built it in Perth, Australia - a city better known for its beaches than its startup scene - over six months, working from home, before ever seeing a term sheet.
Smith was not new to building software. He had already created Reconcilor, award-winning mining reconciliation software. When he turned his attention to customer relationship management, he brought the same sensibility: practical tools, real problems, no fuss.
The early insight was simple but well-timed. Google Apps was taking over the inboxes and calendars of small businesses everywhere, and nobody had built a CRM that actually fit around it. Insightly did. The Gmail sidebar, Google Drive links, Google Calendar sync - it all worked the way small business owners actually worked. That integration was not a feature. It was the product.
By 2012, just two years after launch, Insightly had cleared 100,000 users. No paid acquisition army. No viral growth hack. Just a tool people genuinely found useful. Emergence Capital Partners took notice and led the Series A in October 2012.
The company eventually moved its headquarters to San Francisco and built out a team, but the DNA stayed the same: make powerful CRM tools accessible to the businesses that Salesforce prices out.
Did You Know
The name "Insightly" was chosen to reflect the goal of delivering deeper insights into customer relationships. Straightforward, yes. But it stuck.
Editor's Note
"Relationships are the foundation of business."
Insightly's guiding principle since day one. Not a slogan - a product decision. Every feature follows this premise.
Pre-CRM Chapter
Anthony Smith previously designed award-winning mining reconciliation software (Reconcilor) before pivoting to CRM. The man knew how to build software people actually needed.
Insightly built out its platform in deliberate layers - CRM first, then marketing automation, then customer service. The logic: why switch tools when you can actually connect the full customer journey in one place?
Insightly CRM
The core. Sales pipeline management, contact and lead tracking, opportunity management, and relationship intelligence. Where deals live and customers are remembered.
Core ProductInsightly Marketing
Launched in 2019. Multi-channel campaigns, lead nurturing, email journeys, and customer engagement flows - all connected to the same database your sales team uses. No data handoff needed.
Since 2019Insightly Service
Customer service ticketing and help desk tools for post-sale support. Launched in 2021, it completes the loop so your service team can see the full customer history, not just the open ticket.
Since 2021AppConnect
No-code integration layer. 540+ pre-built connectors spanning 1,000+ third-party business apps. Launched in 2021. Connect your stack without writing a line of code.
1,000+ AppsAI Copilot NEW 2025
Ask your CRM questions in plain English. Summarize email threads, draft responses, create tasks automatically, clean up data, and get real-time pipeline insights - no SQL, no dashboards. Available on Professional and Enterprise plans as of December 2025.
Dec 2025 LaunchHere's what a real team gets out of the platform - beyond the feature list.
Sales pipeline views, drag-and-drop stages, and automated reminders so leads don't fall through the cracks when the team is busy. Your 100th lead gets the same attention as your first.
With CRM and Marketing sharing a single database, you stop guessing which campaigns convert to closed deals. The attribution is built in, not bolted on.
The AI Copilot means your team doesn't need a data analyst to get pipeline insights. "Show me deals closing this month above $50K" works just like that.
AppConnect's 540+ pre-built connectors link Insightly to QuickBooks, Xero, DocuSign, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and hundreds more. Build workflows without writing code.
From first marketing touch to signed contract to support ticket, the full timeline lives in one record. Your service team actually sees the sales history. Revolutionary, apparently.
Knightscope did it. Sullivan & Stanley did it. The migration path is real, the pricing is substantially lower, and the enterprise-grade feature set has been there for years.
The Quiet Grind
Eight years. No new funding. $35 million ARR.
Most SaaS companies raise another round. Insightly just... grew. After the Series C in 2016, the company went nearly a decade operating entirely on revenue.
Sport Court Las Vegas
242% growth
Using Insightly's CRM and pipeline management, Sport Court Las Vegas grew their business by 242%. Not a rounding error.
Sullivan & Stanley
Revenue doubled
The consultancy used Insightly CRM together with Insightly Marketing and doubled their revenue - with the same team.
Knightscope
Replaced Salesforce
The autonomous security robotics company walked away from Salesforce and switched to Insightly, validating the platform's enterprise readiness in the most public way possible.
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Built from home in Perth, Australia
Anthony Smith spends six months building the first version of Insightly from his home, before raising a dollar or filing a pitch deck.
100,000 users • $3M Series A from Emergence Capital
Two years in, the platform hits a six-figure user count. Emergence Capital Partners leads the Series A. The Google Apps angle is working.
$10M Series B
Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Emergence Capital, Sozo Ventures, and TrueBridge Capital Partners back the next round. The team scales.
QuickBooks Online & Dropbox integrations launch
The integration-first strategy deepens. Small businesses can now link their accounting and file storage directly to their CRM.
Xero accounting partnership
Another key integration, expanding appeal to businesses using cloud accounting outside the US.
$25M Series C • ~$221M valuation
The final funding round. Insightly reaches a $221M valuation per PitchBook. Also adds Microsoft Power BI integration. Then... nothing. No more rounds. Just growth.
Insightly Marketing launches
The platform takes its first step toward a unified suite, adding marketing automation natively alongside CRM.
Insightly Service + AppConnect launch
The third product pillar arrives alongside AppConnect - the no-code integration layer connecting 1,000+ third-party apps. The suite is now complete.
Fully remote workforce - permanent
Insightly makes remote-first official. The team is distributed across North America, Europe, and Asia. The office doesn't come back.
Acquired by Crest Rock Partners • Merged with Unbounce
Denver-based private equity firm Crest Rock Partners acquires Insightly and merges it with Unbounce, the Vancouver-based landing page platform. Anthony Smith departs as CEO. Steve Oriola - former CEO of Pipedrive - takes the helm of the combined entity.
AI Copilot launches • DocuSign native • UI refresh
December 2025: the AI Copilot goes live, enabling natural-language CRM interactions. DocuSign e-signature integrates natively. Gantt charts arrive. The platform gets a visual refresh. Unbounce lead flows get closed-loop attribution reporting.
AI Copilot expands • HIPAA pending
Email threading for synced accounts lands in the Copilot. HIPAA compliance for Copilot is in the works. Notion integration is on the roadmap.
For most of its life, Insightly competed on integrations, price, and usability. The AI Copilot launched in December 2025 represents a different kind of move - bringing conversational AI directly into the CRM workflow rather than tacking it on as a separate tool.
The Copilot is not a chatbot pointing at documentation. It works with your actual records - summarizing email threads, drafting replies, creating tasks from conversations, surfacing data hygiene issues, and answering pipeline questions in plain English. The kind of thing that used to require a dedicated ops person.
Launched December 16, 2025
Available on Professional and Enterprise plans. The Copilot is the first major product launch under the combined Insightly + Unbounce entity, signaling where the platform is headed: less manual data entry, more time selling.
As of February 2026, email threading for synced accounts landed in the Copilot. HIPAA compliance is in progress for healthcare customers. Notion integration is on the roadmap.
Professional Plan Enterprise Plan HIPAA ComingThree tiers. Billed annually. A 14-day free trial for all plans. No freemium tier any more - Insightly moved away from that to focus on paying customers with real needs.
Plus
$29
per user / month, billed annuallyCore CRM capabilities for growing teams. Pipeline management, contact tracking, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integrations, and basic reporting.
Professional
$49
per user / month, billed annuallyAdds AI Copilot, advanced automation, custom dashboards, and deeper integration options. The tier most mid-market teams land on.
Enterprise
$99
per user / month, billed annuallyUnlimited features, advanced permissions, custom roles, dedicated support, and full AI Copilot access. Built for complex organizations.
01
Anthony Smith built the entire first version of Insightly from his home in Perth, Australia. Six months of work before a single outside dollar.
02
Insightly went from 2016 to 2024 - eight years - without raising any external capital after Series C, and still grew to approximately $35M ARR.
03
The company was once pitched as "the #1 CRM for Google Apps users." It was not a marketing claim. Google Workspace integration was genuinely the product's core differentiator.
04
Insightly users live in 200+ countries. That makes it one of the most geographically distributed SMB CRM platforms in existence. 66% of customers are US-based.
05
The 2025 CRM Research Report (375+ respondents) found that 70% of businesses think their CRM is the right size - but only 34% of teams fully embrace and effectively use it. An awkward gap.
06
Steve Oriola, who became CEO of the combined Insightly + Unbounce entity in 2024, previously served as CEO of Pipedrive - one of Insightly's direct competitors. The industry is not large.