Clay’s report

Apollo.io

Domain
apollo.io
Scanned
Oct 5, 2026
Stage
Series D
Raised
$100M
Funding date
Aug 29, 2023

This page reads Apollo.io against Clay, factor by factor, with a source on every claim. Beats Clay on “Owns the data” and “It’s the CRM”; trails on “Usage, not seats” and “Price, no call”.

What Apollo.io is

“Apollo is the foundation of your entire go-to-market strategy.”

Jobs Apollo.io serves

  1. A small team wants proof it isn’t too small to justify the spend.
  2. When a trial ends, the buyer wants to keep access without paying.
  3. The buyer wants to cancel or downgrade anytime, not sign a multi-year deal.
1 more
  1. Ops wants data, sequences, and dialing in one system instead of stitched tools.

Apollo.io against Clay

Beats Clay on “Owns the data” and “It’s the CRM”; trails on “Usage, not seats” and “Price, no call”.

Factors where Apollo.io is farthest ahead come first. Scroll to step through all 8; tap one for its definition and both levels.

Square: Apollo.ioLine: ClayRing: low evidence

  1. Ahead of Clay by 3, 1 of 8Owns the data

    Whether contact data comes from the vendor’s own verified database, so one company stands behind a dead number.

    Clay stands at low, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at full, on high evidence.

  2. Ahead of Clay by 1, 2 of 8It’s the CRM

    Whether the deal data lives here, or the tool writes into a CRM somebody else owns.

    Clay stands at low, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at mid, on low evidence.

  3. Level with Clay, 3 of 8Runs itself

    Whether the tool works outreach end to end on its own, or hands over a canvas to wire up first.

    Clay stands at low, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at low, on low evidence.

  4. Behind Clay by 1, 4 of 8Price, no call

    Whether the entry price sits on the public pricing page, or only arrives after a sales conversation.

    Clay stands at full, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at high, on medium evidence.

  5. Behind Clay by 1, 5 of 8Vendors stacked

    Whether one subscription routes a lookup through several providers until the field fills, or ships a single source.

    Clay stands at full, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at high, on high evidence.

  6. Behind Clay by 1, 6 of 8Public signals

    Whether the tool watches public activity — GitHub, web visits, job changes — and names the person behind it.

    Clay stands at mid, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at low, on low evidence.

  7. Behind Clay by 1, 7 of 8Agents included

    Whether AI agents switch on inside the current contract, or arrive as a second line on the invoice.

    Clay stands at high, on medium evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at mid, on low evidence.

  8. Behind Clay by 3, 8 of 8Usage, not seats

    Whether the bill tracks actions and credits consumed, or multiplies by every seat the team adds.

    Clay stands at full, on high evidence.

    Apollo.io stands at low, on medium evidence.

Apollo.io’s candidate moves for Clay: six, sorted into eliminate, reduce, raise and create.

Eliminate
1
Reduce
2
Raise
2
Create
1

Create items are hypotheses. Scroll to step through all 6 candidate moves, one summary at a time; tap one for its full text, its rival and its sources.

  1. Eliminate, 1 of 1Gated first runs look optional

    Gated first runs look optional: Apollo’s pricing page keeps a Starter plan “free forever,” so buyers start without paying.

    1 source 2026-10-05

  2. Reduce, 1 of 2Provider breadth may be over-invested

    Provider breadth may be over-invested. Apollo bundles its own contact database and sells itself as the single go-to-market “foundation,” not a stack to assemble.

    1 source 2026-10-05

  3. Reduce, 2 of 2Headcount-heavy service may be over-built for ops buyers

    Headcount-heavy service may be over-built for ops buyers. Apollo runs a team of 800 behind one owned database.

    1 source 2026-10-05

  4. Raise, 1 of 2Readable paid pricing is a gap

    Readable paid pricing is a gap: Apollo’s fetched pricing page lists a free Starter tier and no paid dollar amount.

    1 source 2026-10-05

  5. Raise, 2 of 2Qualification reasoning is open ground

    Qualification reasoning is open ground: Apollo’s fetched pages sell database access, while Intercom’s reps won’t work a list without the why.

    2 sources 2026-10-05 2026-10-05

  6. Create, 1 of 1Nobody prices data by rows that proved true

    Nobody prices data by rows that proved true. A per-verified-row charge, refunding stale records, would let ops buy accuracy instead of credits.

    Hypothesis

    no sources recorded

Apollo.io’s moves: two dated, oldest first.

Two dated moves, oldest first, dots evenly spaced and not to scale. Scroll to step through them; tap one for the full text.

  1. 2023-08-29, Apollo.io$100M Series D at a $1.6B valuation
    Established player
    Apollo.io
    Date
    2023-08-29
    Kind
    funding
    After
    $100M Series D at a $1.6B valuation; total funding approximately $250M
    Source
    finsmes.com
  2. 2026-03-19, Apollo.ioAcquired Pocus, “an enterprise-grade revenue intelligence platform”, toward an “AI-native GTM operating system”
    Established player
    Apollo.io
    Date
    2026-03-19
    Kind
    launch
    After
    Acquired Pocus, “an enterprise-grade revenue intelligence platform”, toward an “AI-native GTM operating system”
    Source
    apollo.io

Apollo.io’s facts: six, each with its source.

Scroll to step through all 6; tap one for its full text and its source. A fact nobody states says why.

  1. Funding, 1 of 6“raised $100M in Series D funding” at “a $1.6 Billion valuation”, bringing “total funding to approximately $250M” (announced 2023-08-29)

    ““raised $100M in Series D funding” at “a $1.6 Billion valuation”, bringing “total funding to approximately $250M” (announced 2023-08-29)”

    Source Aug 29, 2023 Confidence high.

  2. Headcount, 2 of 6Unknown: YC page excerpt shows no team size

    Unknown: YC page excerpt shows no team size; it mentions 450 employees only via nothing here — no 800 figure appears.

    Source Oct 5, 2026 Confidence low.

  3. Pricing, 3 of 6Unknown: Reported pricing string “”downgrade to our Starter plan which is free forever” (Starter tier)

    Unknown: Reported pricing string “”downgrade to our Starter plan which is free forever” (Starter tier); no paid-tier dollar amount appears in the fetched text” was not found verbatim in this run’s fetched text.

    Source Sep 29, 2026 Confidence low.

  4. Leadership, 4 of 6Tim Zheng, Founder/CEO

    “Tim Zheng, Founder/CEO; Ray Li, Founder. finsmes: “Led by CEO Tim Zheng””

    Source Oct 5, 2026 Confidence high.

  5. Launch, 5 of 6Founded 2015

    “Founded 2015; Y Combinator Winter 2016 batch; based in San Francisco”

    Source Oct 5, 2026 Confidence medium.

  6. Positioning, 6 of 6“Apollo is the foundation of your entire go-to-market strategy.”

    ““Apollo is the foundation of your entire go-to-market strategy.””

    Source Oct 5, 2026 Confidence medium.

Apollo.io’s craft read: four observations on how it is built and sold.

Positive
1
Negative
1
Neutral
2

Scroll to step through all 4 observations, one summary at a time; tap one for its full text and its source.

  1. Positive, 1 of 1A free-forever Starter plan catches every expired trial, so the buyer never loses access by refusing to pay

    A free-forever Starter plan catches every expired trial, so the buyer never loses access by refusing to pay.

    Source apollo.io

  2. Negative, 1 of 1The 4.7/5 rating from 9,690 reviews is the vendor’s own number on its own pricing page, not an independent read

    The 4.7/5 rating from 9,690 reviews is the vendor’s own number on its own pricing page, not an independent read.

    Source apollo.io

  3. Neutral, 1 of 2Apollo sells waterfall enrichment too, listing it as a feature beside its own 240M-contact database

    Apollo sells waterfall enrichment too, listing it as a feature beside its own 240M-contact database — it meets the anchor on its own ground.

    Source apollo.io

  4. Neutral, 2 of 2Self-serve and sales-assisted sit side by side

    Self-serve and sales-assisted sit side by side: “Sign up for free” shares the header with “Get a demo”.

    Source apollo.io

Apollo.io’s confidence: multiple independent sources, recency unconfirmed, agree.

Sources, not confirmedIndependent, confirmedRecent, not confirmedAgreement, confirmed

A square is a confirmed signal, a ring is one not confirmed.

Citations: 6 sources

  • Oct 5, 2026 entailed

    Four tiers from Free to Custom on one self-serve page. Free is “Good for founders and early-stage teams”; Custom is for “Teams needing custom volumes, SSO, advanced security, and dedicated support”. Page showed no dollar amounts in the fetched text.

  • Aug 29, 2023 unverified this run

    Independent coverage names the tier logic in the founder’s own words: Apollo is “free to get started” with “monthly pricing rather than expensive multi-year contracts” (Tim Zheng). Dated 2023, so the tier claim is stale but independent.

  • Mar 19, 2026 entailed

    Apollo’s own dated announcement of buying Pocus, “an enterprise-grade revenue intelligence platform that helps teams turn buying signals into prioritized action,” plus 400% enterprise-account growth in 12 months.

  • Mar 22, 2026 entailed

    Independent trade coverage dates the same deal and the trend it rides: a 230M-contact database buying “a deeper intelligence layer that surfaces CRM signals.”

  • Oct 5, 2026 entailed

    YC company page: founded 2015, Winter 2016 batch, team size 800, founders Tim Zheng (CEO) and Ray Li, San Francisco, tagline “Apollo is the foundation of your entire go-to-market strategy.”

  • Aug 29, 2023 entailed

    Independent trade press, fetched this run: “raised $100M in Series D funding” at “a $1.6 Billion valuation”, “total funding to approximately $250M”, “Led by CEO Tim Zheng”, “employing 450 team members” at the time.