Octolane, a fast-rising AI-first CRM platform, has announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed $2.6 million seed round. Founded by two immigrant entrepreneurs, the company is shaking up the CRM market dominated by Salesforce and other traditional providers with its next-generation system designed to automate CRM updates and sales actions reportedly.
The funding round saw participation from notable investors including angel backers Brian Shin (early investor in HubSpot and Drift), Kulveer Taggar, Cindy Bi of CapitalX, and Dave Messina from Pioneer Fund. Major venture capital firms such as Y Combinator, Lan Xuezhao’s Basis Set Ventures, and General Catalyst Apex also contributed. The capital will be used to grow the Octolane team and invest in infrastructure to scale with the surging customer demand.
Unlike conventional CRM platforms that rely heavily on manual data entry and consume hours of sales teams’ time, Octolane reimagines the CRM as an intelligent system that not only records data but predicts and executes next steps. Instead of being greeted with tedious administrative tasks, sales reps logging into Octolane see a dashboard populated with already completed actions and strategic recommendations for moving deals forward – freeing up over 25 hours a week previously spent on CRM upkeep.
Investor Cindy Bi discovered the startup through its engaging Twitter presence and visited their San Francisco office on a weekend. She was impressed by the founders’ immigrant journey, their clear vision, and a product demo that showcased how Octolane is capturing serious attention from businesses ready to transition away from legacy systems like Salesforce and HubSpot. Bi emphasized that Octolane exemplifies what an AI-first CRM should be – a proactive platform that facilitates action rather than requiring constant inputs.
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Kulveer Taggar also expressed enthusiasm, citing the team’s relentless focus on customer feedback and high output. According to him, co-founders One Chowdhury and Md Abdul Halim Rafi are keenly aware that customer retention is the cornerstone of success in the CRM space. Their bold approach has attracted fast-growing companies that are eager to embrace Octolane’s new way of handling sales operations.
Chowdhury and Rafi, who taught themselves to code through online tutorials, have been best friends since high school. Chowdhury’s inspiration to launch a CRM startup came after a trip to San Francisco, where he noticed the towering Salesforce building. Upon learning about its poor user reputation despite its dominance, he realized there was a huge opportunity to innovate in the space. Believing that AI had outpaced the functionality of existing CRM systems, he called Rafi, and together they set out to build a truly intelligent platform. Chowdhury left Duke University (Class of 2025) to dedicate himself full-time to Octolane.
Since launching earlier this year, Octolane has attracted 200 active customers, with over 5,000 more businesses on the waitlist. The overwhelming majority are moving away from tools like Salesforce and HubSpot. One such company is Retell AI, which reported major efficiency gains after implementing Octolane. The AI-driven system automatically qualifies leads, integrates a calendar for seamless booking, and replaces several separate tools—saving both time and money while speeding up the sales process. Retell AI described Octolane as a unified, highly functional platform akin to what Rippling did for HR systems.
About Octolane
Octolane is the first truly AI-native CRM that automates both updates and sales actions, enabling sales teams to focus on closing deals instead of administrative tasks. Built from the ground up with automation and intelligent workflows, Octolane is helping hundreds of teams transition from outdated, fragmented systems like HubSpot and Salesforce to a faster, smarter, all-in-one solution. With backing from Y Combinator, General Catalyst Apex, and prominent angel investors, Octolane is redefining what modern CRM software should be.
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