Figure Eight's technology in the engineering, product and machine learning teams have been a very positive addition to the company. We are now firmly a data and machine learning technology company, building on our established brand as a language company. The Figure Eight platform is proven to be deeper than originally thought. And its security features, including its SOC 2 compliance, and this is a certification that relates to the security, availability, integrity and the data confidentiality of SaaS-based systems, is proven to be invaluable, particularly in the current climate of increasing scrutiny on data privacy.
The achievement of planned synergies and the path to profitability are on track, as is our full year EBITDA outlook. However, despite a strong first quarter, Q2 sales and retention were not where we would have like them. The acquisition was distracting for staff, and it cost us some sales momentum. The sales team is also necessarily shifting to chase bigger deals, and some of these slipped outside the quarter.
That said, we've implemented some remedies and added management support from Appen. Our new Global Head of Sales, Jon Kondo, is spending much of his time with the Figure Eight team. Jon has a strong pedigree in sales growth and SaaS companies in particular, and his efforts are yielding benefits. We have over 30 cross-sell opportunities between Figure Eight and Appen, and the third quarter is off to a nice start.
We've revised our full year ARR target for Figure Eight, and we note that the revision had an immaterial effect on the overall Appen results. And further, investors are protected by the earn-out structure.
We view the current performance as temporary and retain a high conviction in Figure Eight and its thesis over the mid- to long term.
It's also worth noting that another company in our space called Scale recently raised capital at a valuation of $1 billion. And that was well up from its previous valuation less than 18 months ago of $93 million. And regardless of what you think of the valuation, this shows there's genuine interest in the data annotation market and reinforces the value of Figure Eight to Appen and to our future.
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