Podcast Summary: Lemlist Revenue Hits $40M – CEO Charles Breaks Down $25M Claap Acquisition Deal
Podcast: SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Host: Nathan Latka
Guest: Charles Tono, CEO of Lemlist and Lempire
Episode Date: November 18, 2025
Episode Overview
In this episode, Nathan Latka interviews Charles Tono, CEO of Lemlist, about their recent $25 million acquisition of Claap, an AI call intelligence platform. The discussion dives into Lemlist’s transition from an email automation tool to a broader sales engagement platform, the creative deal structure behind the acquisition, and Lemlist’s path to $40M+ in annual recurring revenue. Charles opens up about revenue numbers, deal breakdown, and strategic motivation behind the acquisition, providing rare transparency into SaaS M&A.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Introducing Lemlist’s Trajectory and the Claap Acquisition
- Background: Lemlist is a rapidly growing sales engagement platform, now at $40M+ ARR, supporting multi-channel outreach (email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, phone).
- Acquisition Motivation: Lemlist acquires Claap, an AI call intelligence product, to expand capabilities, especially in call recording, transcription, sales coaching, CRM auto-fill, and conversational insights.
- Strategic Fit: Both companies target similar customers—sales teams with 3–50 reps—and share strong product and tech DNA.
Quote:
“Lemlist is a sales engagement platform… we try to be the platform that has the most capabilities in terms of engagement.”
– Charles Tono [01:41]
2. Background on Claap and Strategic Decision to Acquire
- Why Claap: Lemlist team used Claap internally, loved the product, and saw under-leveraged distribution potential.
- Claap’s Profile: Claap reached $2M ARR after pivoting from async video to conversational intelligence; 7-person team, almost break-even, growing ~10% MoM.
- Product Synergy: Claap’s intelligence unlocks “lost assets” from calls—valuable for sales prospecting and customer context.
Quote:
“If you start from [call] things you know… in the conversation that are not used in most companies, you have a lot of intelligence that you can use to improve prospection and outreach.”
– Charles Tono [05:22]
3. Deal Structure: Creative Financing and Founder Incentives
- Headline Deal Value: $25M in total potential value, but only $10M at close ($5M immediate cash + $5M vendor loan), convertible bonds, and a $15M earnout.
- Vendor Loan: Seller finances part of the purchase, allowing Lemlist to pay over time with interest (3.5%).
- Convertible Bonds: Claap founders receive bonds convertible to Lemlist shares at a 20–30% discount upon a liquidity event.
- Earnout: Up to $15M if Claap’s ARR grows from $2M to $10M within 3 years.
- Negotiation and Fit: Lemlist was not the highest bidder but won the deal through vision, team fit, and product synergy, not just price.
Quote:
“M&A is more about relationship and people than really strategy to be honest.”
– Charles Tono [09:45]
4. Growth, Integration, and Future Plans
- Lemlist Financials: Grew from $15M to $36M ARR since Charles joined; expect to surpass $100M by 2028.
- Profitability Focus: Targeting 25–35% profit margins, balancing growth and cash investment in M&A.
- Integration Plan: Lemlist aims to massively grow Claap by leveraging its superior product DNA and Lemlist’s distribution engine.
Quote:
“We are profitable. We always try to remain highly profitable… and with the positive cash flow, we try to invest in M&A deals because it creates more value for our end users ultimately.”
– Charles Tono [16:00]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On Lemlist’s Product Evolution:
“We help them find leads… to engage on multi channel… and hopefully it’s not down with the AWS outage today.”
– Charles Tono [01:41] -
On Claap’s Small Team:
“Everyone who has tried the product was shocked when they knew it was only seven people. It’s one of the reasons why we bought Claap…”
– Charles Tono [07:39] -
On the Deal Mechanics:
“It’s a mix. It’s 50/50, but it’s not an escrow, it’s vendor loan… instead of getting the debt from a financial institution, you get the debt from the vendor.”
– Charles Tono [10:38] -
On Founder Incentives:
“They have some part of the price which is convertible bonds… So if there is a sell or partial sale… you get your 2 million plus 20% of upside.”
– Charles Tono [12:22] -
On Growth Targets:
“To get that full $25M deal value, Claap's revenue has to grow to 10M ARR in three years. But we’ll do it in one.”
– Charles Tono [15:10]
Timestamps for Important Segments
- [00:23] — Breakdown of $25M deal structure and acquisition strategy
- [01:41] — Charles introduces Lemlist and rationale behind acquiring Claap
- [02:28] — Claap’s product capabilities and integration potential
- [04:03] — Why Lemlist chose Claap over building in-house
- [06:55] — Claap’s revenue, team, and growth runway
- [08:54] — How Charles first approached Claap CEO; deal negotiations
- [10:11] — Final bid value and cash/loan structure
- [12:22] — Convertible bonds and founder incentives explained
- [15:04] — Earnout terms: Claap’s ARR target for full payout
- [15:31] — Lemlist’s financial philosophy: growth, profit, reinvesting in M&A
- [17:42] — Spike in Claap new workspaces after the announcement
Conclusion
This episode delivers an insider look at scaling a successful SaaS company, structuring creative acquisition deals in the private market, and the importance of aligning company cultures on both sides of M&A. Charles Tono provides exceptional transparency, sharing both strategic logic and deal details, valuable to SaaS founders and operators aiming to scale—organically and inorganically.
For more information, listeners are encouraged to follow Charles Tono on LinkedIn or try Claap at clap.io (once the AWS/Webflow outage is resolved).