Welcome to the SaaS weekly roundup – a weekly series that brings everything you need to know about the happenings in the SaaS ecosystem. As always, we have got a ton of news, funding announcements, and more for you.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Dropbox will have a free password manager in April — if you’ve got 50 or fewer passwords
With LastPass limiting the features in its free version, it seems Dropbox also aims to gain acceptance as a password manager. It’s offering free users the ability to store up to 50 passwords, while the paid users will of course have the option to store more passwords. Worth noting that Dropbox had acquired a password manager dubbed Valt in 2019, so it aims to be making it as a value-add service on top of its cloud features.
Related read: As LastPass limits the free version, these are the best free password managers to go for
Food-ordering software firm Olo jumps after $450million IPO
We had mentioned just last week that Olo would go public, and it has done so quite successfully. The delivery and order management company rose 39 percent on the day it got listed. Its shares opened at $32 and closed at $34.75, taking its valuation to $4.93million.
DigitalOcean emphasizes simplicity in IPO filing as it prepares to battle cloud giants like Amazon
Cloud computing infrastructure provider DigitalOcean has filed to go public. It’ll trade with the ticker DOCN, and while it doesn’t have any flashy valuation, it’s a pure-play cloud business, unlike Amazon and Microsoft. As per the prospectus, Digital Ocean expects to sell its shares at $44 to $47 per share, which would take its market cap to $5billion.
Stack Overflow adds a free tier to its fast-growing Teams service
Stack Overflow is the go-to place for programmers to get answers to their questions. But the company has forayed into the enterprise space too with its Stack Overflow for Teams offering. The collaboration software lets companies manage and share knowledge. Now the Teams product has added a freemium plan, and will also introduce an always free plan in the future.
SaaS funding
Stripe valuation soars to $95billion after latest fundraising
Payments company Stripe has become the most valuable private company with its latest funding of $600million. Its valuation has tripled in less than a year and is currently being valued at $95billion.
Squarespace raises $300million at a staggering $10billion valuation
Website builder software Squarespace has nabbed a $300million funding that takes its valuation to $10billion. The company has already filed to go public via a direct listing or IPO, so this is perhaps its last round of funding.
E-commerce marketing startup Yotpo raises $230M at a $1.4billion valuation
Yotpo has closed a $230million funding round led by BVP and Tiger Global. The e-commerce marketing startup has raised Series F just seven months after its previous funding, and is now valued at $1.4billion. Yotpo aims to be a full-stack marketing platform for e-commerce retailers, offering SMS marketing, loyalty and referrals, reviews, and UGC.
Airtable tops $5.7billion valuation on growing enterprise sales and a soaring cloud market
The low-code / no-code movement doesn’t look like it’ll stop anytime soon. Airtable, one of the most popular companies in this space, has closed a $270million Series E round. Led by Greenoaks Capital, the company is now valued at $5.77billion – more than double the valuation from $2.5billion.
PayFit raises €90million amid SaaS for SMEs surge
Paris-based PayFit is a payroll software for SMEs. It has received €90million (~$107million) Series D funding from French investors. The startup aims to use the money to increase its employee base by 50 percent, and introduce new features.
Software company Socure raises funds at $1.3billion valuation
Socure helps companies in verifying the user identity, and it has raised $100million from a clutch of investors. Led by Accel, it’s now valued at $1.3billion. The company will hire more talent as well as expand its customers to other verticals like gaming and healthcare.
Appfire, provider of Atlassian apps, raises $100million to continue its buying spree
Boston-based Appfire is a provider of software development apps. It has raised $100million in funding from TA Associates. The company will be using the amount to continue acquisitions in the Atlassian ecosystem.
Must reads
No, you can’t just switch to a usage-based pricing model overnight
Listen to
The Story of Grid so far, from Beta to Series A and commercial launch, with Hjálmar Gíslason Founder & CEO, Grid
Grid aims to let you turbocharge your spreadsheets into interactive web documents. What’s interesting is that the three-year old startup is still in beta and hasn’t launched the product commercially. In this episode, its co-founder and serial entrepreneur Hjalmar Gislason discuss how he got the idea, their fundraising strategy, and why the product is still in beta, among others.
How Vishal Sunak took his SaaS from zero to $10million ARR
In this episode, LinkSquares’ co-founder and CEO Vishal Sunak shares about how he got the idea for the contract management solution, how they reached out to prospective users without even having a fully working product, and more.
Watch
Bessemer’s State of the Cloud 2021
Bessemer Venture Partners (or BVP) is among the prolific investors in the cloud segment. It’s also known for its yearly State of the Cloud reports which helps in knowing the landscape every year along with giving some predictions for the future. BVP has now released its 2021 report which is full of interesting nuggets. Watch the video to know that, and to find out more, do check out its website.
