Table of Contents
- Apollo.io founders and financing at a glance
- Who is Tim Zheng?
- Who is Ray Li?
- Why the founders built Apollo.io
- What Apollo.io does
- What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
- Apollo.io financing and transaction history
- What the latest milestone was intended to change
- Founder and company timeline
- The founders' public thesis
- Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
- Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
- Frequently asked questions
Tim Zheng and Ray Li founded Apollo.io, the ai-powered sales intelligence and go-to-market platform business now serving sales, marketing, revenue operations and go-to-market teams. Tim Zheng is Co-founder and Board Chair; Ray Li is Co-founder and CTO.
The latest material financing milestone covered here is $100M Series D, dated 2023-08-29. The relevant total is Approximately $250M, labelled as company-confirmed total after the Series D; Matt Curl became CEO in 2026. It is company-level capital or transaction value—not founder net worth.
Authentic Apollo.io website evidence captured on 21 July 2026.
Apollo.io founders and financing at a glance
| Field | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Founding team | Tim Zheng and Ray Li |
| Current or documented roles | Tim Zheng: Co-founder and Board Chair; Ray Li: Co-founder and CTO |
| Company | Apollo.io — apollo.io |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters or operating scope | San Francisco, California, United States; fully distributed team |
| Product category | AI-powered sales intelligence and go-to-market platform |
| Primary customer | Sales, marketing, revenue operations and go-to-market teams |
| Latest financing milestone | $100M Series D, 2023-08-29 |
| Total or transaction value | Approximately $250M — company-confirmed total after the Series D; Matt Curl became CEO in 2026 |
| Public status | Privately held or part of an acquirer |
| Last verified | 21 July 2026 |
Who is Tim Zheng?
Tim Zheng is Co-founder and Board Chair at Apollo.io. Tim Zheng's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Tim Zheng on LinkedIn.
Tim Zheng in Apollo’s official founder directory.
In the founding team, Tim Zheng contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Apollo.io. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Who is Ray Li?
Ray Li is Co-founder and CTO at Apollo.io. Ray Li's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Ray Li on LinkedIn.
Ray Li in Apollo’s official founder directory.
In the founding team, Ray Li contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Apollo.io. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Why the founders built Apollo.io
Zheng experienced the cost and friction of prospecting while building his first startup and began creating his own contact-data and outreach tools. He and Li founded Apollo to make accurate B2B data and sales execution accessible in a single, product-led platform.
This is documented company history plus editorial assessment. It does not establish private motivations beyond what the founders and company have said publicly.
What Apollo.io does
Apollo combines a large B2B contact database with enrichment, sequencing, calling, conversation intelligence, deal workflows and AI agents. The platform now positions itself as an end-to-end agentic operating system for outbound, inbound and deal execution.
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What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
Apollo paired data with execution from the beginning and used a product-led model to make enterprise-style sales tooling accessible to smaller teams. In 2026 Zheng moved from CEO to Board Chair and Matt Curl became CEO; Li remains co-founder and CTO.
Our assessment is that durable differentiation must show up in customer outcomes, workflow adoption, reliable data movement and lower operating cost—not only in feature count or AI branding.
Apollo.io financing and transaction history
| Announcement date | Round or instrument | Amount | Lead or named participants | Reported use | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2021 | Series B | $32M | Tribe Capital | Expand sales intelligence and engagement | Company-confirmed |
| 3 March 2022 | Series C | $110M | Sequoia Capital | Accelerate product, engineering and global growth | Company-confirmed |
| 29 August 2023 | Series D | $100M at a $1.6B valuation | Bain Capital Ventures | Scale the unified GTM platform | Company-confirmed; approximately $250M total |
| — | Current qualified figure | Approximately $250M | — | — | company-confirmed total after the Series D; Matt Curl became CEO in 2026 |
The headline uses $100M Series D because it is the clearest recent milestone in the verified record. Different instruments are not silently combined: acquisition consideration, IPO proceeds, primary funding and secondary liquidity have different meanings.
What the latest milestone was intended to change
Public statements connect the milestone to some combination of product investment, AI capability, geographic expansion, hiring, acquisitions or shareholder liquidity. Those plans are attributed intentions, not proof that each outcome occurred. Evidence should include shipped capabilities, adoption, retention, unit economics and customer results after the transaction.
Founder and company timeline
| Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Zheng and Li found Apollo after building internal prospecting tools. |
| 2021 | Apollo raises a $32M Series B. |
| 2022 | A $110M Series C accelerates product and team expansion. |
| 2023 | Apollo raises a $100M Series D at a $1.6B valuation. |
| 2025 | Apollo crosses $150M in ARR as AI usage expands. |
| 2026 | Matt Curl becomes CEO; Zheng continues as founder and Board Chair. |
The founders' public thesis
Across the available company history, the founders argue that customer data becomes valuable when operating teams can turn it into timely, coordinated action. The exact emphasis differs by company—category creation, accessibility, data ownership, real-time infrastructure or AI-assisted execution—but the test is similar: can a customer make better decisions without adding hidden complexity?
Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
Visible strengths
- A founding thesis attached to a recurring and measurable marketing workflow.
- Product history and financing evidence available from primary sources.
- A platform broad enough to influence data, orchestration and customer communication.
Material risks
- Contact-data and enrichment workflows require lawful sourcing, opt-out handling and regional privacy controls.
- Automated sequencing needs deliverability monitoring, suppression rules and human review.
- The public about page still contains an older CEO label, so the newer leadership announcement takes precedence.
Questions buyers and researchers should ask
- Which founder roles are current, and which describe historical service?
- How is incremental customer or revenue impact measured against a control?
- What data, consent, model and deliverability controls constrain automated action?
- Which transaction amounts were primary capital, secondary liquidity or acquisition consideration?
- What implementation resources are required before the platform produces reliable value?
Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
Watch for independently explainable retention and expansion, transparent AI evaluation, successful migrations, product delivery tied to the announced financing purpose and current executive-role disclosures. For public companies, filings provide a stronger operating signal than promotional customer counts alone. For private companies, future financing announcements should identify transaction composition clearly.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Apollo.io?
Apollo.io was founded by Tim Zheng and Ray Li.
What does Apollo.io do?
Apollo.io provides ai-powered sales intelligence and go-to-market platform capabilities for sales, marketing, revenue operations and go-to-market teams.
What is Apollo.io's latest financing milestone?
The latest milestone verified for this profile is $100M Series D, dated 2023-08-29.
How much funding has Apollo.io raised?
The qualified figure used here is Approximately $250M. Its status is company-confirmed total after the Series D; Matt Curl became CEO in 2026; it should not be interpreted as founder wealth.
What should buyers verify?
Buyers should test data integration, consent controls, measurement, implementation effort, support, exportability and the limits placed on automated or AI-generated actions.
Tolu S.
Associate Director
Evidence-led product reviews and founder profiles for search, marketing, authority, and AI visibility teams.
