Propel Software
Propel Software is a cloud-based software company founded in 2015 that specializes in product lifecycle management (PLM), product information management (PIM) and quality management system (QMS) solutions for manufacturing and product development companies across industrial equipment, medical device, high tech and consumer goods industries. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company is built natively on the Salesforce platform and offers an AI tool, Propel One.[1][2] HistoryPropel Software was established in 2015 by Ray Hein, Ron Hess, and Brian Sohmers.[3] Hein had previously held the position of vice president of product strategy at Agile Software Corporation, which was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2007.[4] The start-up secured a US$4.2 million Series A round led by Cloud Apps Capital Partners in March 2016 to build product lifecycle management on Salesforce.[5] In 2018, the company raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from previous investors including Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Signalfire.[6] By 2021, Propel had raised an additional $20 million in a Series C round led by Salesforce Ventures, bringing total funding to $48 million.[7] Customers at that time included companies like Inari Medical, Imperative Care, and Samsara.[7] In late 2022, founder Ray Hein transitioned from his role as chief executive officer to a chief strategy officer, while Ross Meyercord, a former Salesforce CIO, assumed the CEO role.[4][8] The company appeared in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ranking in 2021,[1] 2022,[9] 2023,[10] and 2024.[11] In April 2023, Fortune placed Propel at No. 108 on its inaugural list of “America’s Most Innovative Companies.[12] The company also organizes an annual conference, Propulsion. The 2023 edition was held virtually and included company presentations. At the event, CEO Ross Meyercord stated that revenue had increased over the prior three years.[13] The fifth conference, Propulsion 2024, took place in Chicago.[14] Products and servicesPropel Software's primary offering is a product value management platform that combines PLM, PIM, and QMS into a single cloud-based platform.[7] In May 2022, industry analyst firm CIMdata reported that Propel had introduced a “product value management” (PVM) concept designed to connect product and commercial teams across a continuous digital thread.[15] In September 2023, Propel released four new solutions on Salesforce AppExchange—including Component Insights, a native PIM module and a supplier-community portal.[16] Propel launched Product Spotlight in January 2025—an in-context Salesforce widget that surfaces real-time product data for sales, service and field-service teams.[17] In March 2025, the company introduced Propel One, an AI-agent tool built with Salesforce Agentforce that automates tasks across engineering, quality, supply-chain and commercial functions.[18] Tech-Clarity’s Jim Brown characterized the strategy as extending product and customer data into a ‘Product Graph’.[19] To extend enterprise process coverage, the platform supports packaged integrations and partner-led implementations. At the Propulsion 2023 event, Technology Evaluation Centers reported recent enhancements including integrated supply-chain risk capabilities, 2D/3D rendering and markup, extensions to the low-code architecture, and a “Built for NetSuite” ERP connector.[20] In July 2025, the company partnered with Razorleaf Corporation to integrate product data management (PDM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.[21] References
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