Jack Altman’s first Benchmark deal is a new AI sales startup that is seeing huge revenue growth

• Monaco, which came out of stealth earlier this year, is developing AI software to automate sales.
• Monaco announced Tuesday that it raised a $50 million funding round led by Benchmark.
• This is the first deal longtime investor Jack Altman has made since joining Benchmark.

Monaco had no revenue in February. Three months later, the AI sales startup says it is adding more than $1 million in revenue every month. That kind of hockey stick growth is what turned Benchmark’s newest partner, Jack Altman, into a believer and landed the startup a fresh $50 million round.

Monaco announced Tuesday it raised a $50 million Series B funding round led by Benchmark, bringing its total funding to more than $85 million. Altman, the former Lattice CEO and brother of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who joined Benchmark earlier this year, will join Monaco’s board.

Returning investors Founders Fund and Human Capital also participated in the round. The valuation was not disclosed.

The raise is the latest example of how quickly capital is flowing into AI startups, especially those that show strong revenue growth. Companies are increasingly raising massive rounds only months after launching products publicly as investors race to back potential category leaders early.

“We launched in February, we had no revenue,” founder and CEO Sam Blond told Business Insider. “During February, March, and April, we added seven figures of ARR each month, and revenue is accelerating.”

Monaco is developing AI software to automate key parts of the sales process, including prospecting, outbound outreach, pipeline management, and customer tracking. Blonde wants the company to be known as the “Cursor of sales,” referring to the popular AI coding startup that made a $60 billion deal with SpaceX.

‘When stuff works, it works fast’

It used to be startups waited years, not months, to raise a Series B, but these are not normal times. Just two months ago, Monaco announced a $25 million Series A round led by Founder’s Fund, where Blond was a partner until 2024.

Altman said Monaco’s early traction was part of what convinced Benchmark to move quickly.

“I think in general, when stuff works, it works fast,” Altman said. “You back great people as early as you can back them.”

Still, Altman said the investment decision ultimately came down to Blond, a former Brex and Zenefits sales executive who spent two years in VC before saying that he missed being an operator.

“I think it’s really all about the founder,” Altman said.

The startup is part of a crowded, increasingly competitive market that includes incumbents like Salesforce and HubSpot, as well as a wave of newer AI-native challengers such as 11x, Artisan, and Aurasell.

“Generally speaking, any good software market is going to be competitive,” Altman said. “But my view on it was very clearly that the momentum is night and day and that what Sam and Monaco are doing is just dramatically faster than what I’m seeing at other places.”

Altman said the flood of money pouring into AI startups has naturally raised questions about whether the industry is entering bubble territory.

“We’re in a moment when a lot of capital is available, markets look very big, there’s a real technology disruption happening,” Altman said. “There will be a correction because there has always been one. What we don’t know is whether it’s tomorrow or in seven years. You just don’t know.”

Blond said Monaco did not need to raise another round so quickly after, as it had roughly $24 million in the bank. Adding Altman to the board was a key factor, and Monaco can use the additional capital to hire engineers, which does not come cheap these days.

“There are things that we will be able to do with this infusion of capital that we will use to accelerate that lead,” he said. “Despite being at it for far less time, we are moving much, much faster than the others in the space.”

Monaco has quickly been building buzz in Silicon Valley through its ubiquitous billboards and a high-end poker tournament it hosted last month that offered $100,000 in prize money. Altman said plans to play in the startup’s next tournament in June.

“I love poker,” he said. “Though I’m a little rusty,”