Apttus

Apttus was an enterprise software company that specialized in Quote-to-Cash (QTC) and Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solutions — the software that helps sales teams generate accurate quotes, configure complex product bundles, and manage the entire revenue lifecycle from proposal to payment. Founded by Kirk Krappe and Neehar Giri, the company raised over $400 million and built its product primarily on top of the Salesforce platform. For years, Apttus was the dominant third-party CPQ solution for Salesforce customers. The company served over 500 enterprise customers including some of the world's largest companies. At its peak, Apttus was valued at approximately $1.3 billion and was widely expected to IPO. But Salesforce's decision to acquire SteelBrick (a competing CPQ solution) in 2015 and integrate it as 'Salesforce CPQ' fundamentally undermined Apttus's business. As Salesforce promoted its own native CPQ to customers, Apttus lost its primary distribution channel and faced a competitor that was deeply integrated into the platform Apttus itself depended on. The company tried to differentiate through AI-powered features and contract management, and eventually pivoted away from Salesforce dependency toward its own platform. But the damage was done. In 2020, Apttus merged with Conga, a document generation company, in a deal orchestrated by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The merger valued the combined entity well below Apttus's $400M+ in invested capital. For investors — particularly K1 Investment Management, which had backed Apttus heavily — the outcome represented significant losses.

What happened to Apttus?

What is CPQ software?