Welcome to SaaS weekly roundup, your weekly dose of all things SaaS. With the industry growing at a rapid pace, it’s important to see the micro and macro trends that are shaping it. So, without further delay, here’s what deserves your attention this week.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Exploding SaaS market drives Dell’s partnership with Druva for data protection
Dell Technologies has launched EMC PowerProtect Backup Service to provide cloud data protection in partnership with Druva. The service supports popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace as well as cloud-based workloads on services like Salesforce.
ServiceNow, Qualtrics partner, aim to meld sentiment data and workflows
IT Service Management company ServiceNow and recently hived-off SAP’s subsidiary Qualtrics have joined hands to combine the former’s digital workflows with the latter’s experience management offerings. The companies would be launching new products in the second half of this year.
Okta expands into new markets with governance and privileged access tools
Expanding its TAM (Total Adressable Market) from $55billion to $80billion, Identity and Authentication Management leader Okta has introduced two new products earlier this week. There’s Privileged Access Management (PAM) that will help organizations in securing their critical infrastructure, while Identity Governance Administration (IGA) will deliver identity governance within the organization. The company is aiming to launch the products by the first quarter next year.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
KKR to invest $500million in software provider Box Inc.
Cloud storage provider Box has been in the news lately. Not necessarily for the right reasons though; as it seems that activist investors are getting uneasy while seeing its uninspiring growth. Hence, the $500million infusion from KKR does come across as a lifeline for the company. Additionally, CEO Aaron Levie will step down as a chairman, though he’ll remain in the board.
Related read: Industry experts bullish on $500M KKR investment in Box, but stock market remains skeptical
Aussie design startup Canva’s valuation balloons to $15billion
Forget unicorns, we’re seeing decacorns in this industry. Graphic design software Canva has received $71million funding at an eye-popping valuation of $15billion. Worth noting that the deal was finalized in November, and it has raised $390million till now.
Gupshup lands $100million from Tiger Global, valuation hits $1.4billion
Speaking of unicorns, the Indian startup ecosystem has been buzzing with one after the other this past week. Amidst those names is Gupshup, a SaaS-based messaging service for businesses. What’s more interesting is the fact that the company last raised money in 2011, and with its $100million xx round, it’s now valued at $1.4billion.
Another business messaging service that has got funding this past week is SendBird. As a cloud communication platform, it acts as a provider of chat, video, and other interactive services to its customers. Led by Steadfast Financial, the company is now valued at $1.05billion.
Tasktop nabs $100million to turn DevOps metrics into visualizations at scale
Tasktop is a value stream management (VSM) platform helping reduce the time to market and increase the pace of software development. It has gotten $100million to accelerate its growth. The round was led by Sumeru Equity Partners.
Tines raises $26million Series B for its no-code security automation platform
The interest around no-code / low-code startups doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Tines, a no-code security automation platform, has nabbed $26million Series B funding. Led by Addition Ventures, the Dublin-based startup will use the money to expand its team to focus on product growth.
Must reads
How the fastest growing SaaS companies are using data to optimize the revenue funnel
How to optimize a SaaS homepage: keywords, linking and more
Is it time To ditch the old SaaS metrics?
Listen to
ConvertKit’s shocking growth to $25million revenue, power of creator economy
In this podcast, ConvertKit’s Nathan Barry joins Nathan Latka to talk about his early years, the idea behind the email marketing software, its growth, and more. The two also discuss the creator economy – which is suddenly in vogue with the rise of creator-focused tools.
Charting the journey of Dixa from zero to $10million ARR with Mads Fosselius
Dixa is a helpdesk software based out of Denmark. Considering it competes against the giants in the space such as Zendesk, this podcast with its CEO Mads Fosselius is a must-listen in order to understand how the company found its niche and grew to $10million ARR and beyond.
Snowflake CMO Denise Persson’s guide to taking your marketing to $100million
Snowflake – one of the best IPOs of 2020 – has seen a phenomenal growth. Listen to its CMO, Denise Persson as she takes us through the five tips that helped the database management software achieve $100million ARR and beyond.
Watch
SaaS landing pages that convert in 2021 – examples, trends & insights
In this video, host TK Kader shares all you need to know about landing pages for a SaaS offering. He shares that as people are becoming wary of entering their details on a form, how you can generate leads without them.
