As per a report by Crunchbase, the number of startups that raised the funding to become a unicorn (or raised more funding after being a unicorn) in 2021 has already crossed the number of unicorns in 2020 (166 vs 163). Of course, these include all sorts of companies and not just those who’re in the SaaS industry. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find a lot of SaaS companies only. And if you’ve been a regular reader of this roundup, then this won’t come as a surprise. The funding pace in the space continues unabated, and we’re seeing a lot of acquisitions too. So, what did the previous week held in store for us? A lot of the same, and a lot of new things too (in the form of news and more)…
Table of Contents
News of the week
Google Workspace turns to ‘Smart Chips’ to weave Docs, Tasks, and Meet together
The search giant announced a dozen of new updates to Workspace. Chief among them is a concept dubbed Chips, which lets you add not just contacts to a document, but even other Sheets, etc. by using the @ symbol. The Smart Canvas feature brings some much-needed smarts to the Workspace and will help it compete with the likes of Notion, which is fluid with any kind of content that one can add. There are several other additions too such as the ability to do video calls within the docs, and get a Grammarly-like language checker, among other things.
Google partners with Shopify on online shopping expansion
Google also announced a partnership with Shopify to allow its merchants to sign up quickly on Google and allow them to appear their products on its various offerings such as Search, Maps, Images, Lens, and YouTube.
Microsoft Teams now brings family and friends together to call, chat, and make plans
It seems that consumerization of B2B products continue to take place. After announcing it earlier, the software giant Microsoft has announced Microsoft Teams for personal use. This means, that friends and family member can chat, do voice / video calls, share content, and more.
Squarespace shares fall in direct listing debut
Website builder software Squarespace made its public debut earlier this week. While it chose a direct listing – similar to Asana and Spotify – its price fell to $43.31, which was below the reference price of $50.
Related read: Squarespace CEO is worth $2.4 billion after web company he built in college debuts on NYSE
Procore raises $634.5million in IPO priced above range
Cloud-based construction software company Procore got a price of $67 per share, higher than its planned price of $60 to $65. This helped the company raise $634.5million, and it’ll be listed on NYSE with the symbol PCOR.
Twilio to acquire Seattle business texting startup Zipwhip for $850million
Cloud communications company Twilio has made a name for itself with its acquisitions. The latest company that’s going in its fold is business-texting startup Zipwhip. The deal is pegged at $850million in cash and stocks, and Zipwhip will become a part of Twilio’s Messaging Business Unit.
Stripe acquires Bouncer to help businesses with fraud prevention
Payment giant Stripe has acquired Bouncer, a company that provides card scanning technology to reduce fraud during online transactions. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Bouncer will be used to improve Stripe Radar to identify high-risk transactions.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Boston startup Klaviyo raises $320million, doubling its valuation to $9.5billion in seven months
Klaviyo, a marketing automation software, has closed a $320million Series D funding round – just seven after raising a $200million Series C round. Now it’s valued at $9.5billion, and the company also highlighted that it has doubled its paying customers in the past 12 months. Led by Sands Capital, the company aims to expand to more markets and focusing on new verticals such as healthcare and financial services.
Industrial SaaS startup Cognite raises $150million on a unicorn valuation of $1.6billion
Cognite provides an industrial IoT platform for legacy industries to help them become more sustainable and profitable. It has received $150million in funding led by TCV, which will also help it in international expansion.
Loom raises $130million Series C to unlock the potential of video for hybrid work
Remote work is creating a new paradigm for working, and Loom is leading that from the front. Instead of real-time video calls through software like Zoom, it enables asynchronous videos. The startup already has over 10million users across 120,000+ companies, and for growing further, it has gotten $130million Series C funding led by A16z.
Presentation platform Pitch eyes the enterprise with $85million raise
Collaborative presentation platform Pitch has announced a Series B funding of $85million. The platform lets team members collaborate with each other on a video chat to discuss the presentation. Pitch also integrates with third-party apps like Google Analytics to integrate the data quickly. With the funding, the startup plans to introduce an enterprise plan.
Business operations startup Salto has announced its Series B funding round of $42million. The startup helps in managing the umpteen SaaS applications that an organization has. Led by Accel, the startup has raised a total of $69million till now.
NextBillion.ai raises $6.25million in Series A round from M12
AI spatial data startup NextBillion has received another $6.25million from Microsoft’s M12 as part of its Series A round. The startup helps enterprises in building, scaling, and managing their spatial data ecosystem at scale.
Must reads
The adoption and benefits of SaaS in the video communication industry
Marketing to developers: core values and tactical tips from GitLab’s former CMO
Listen to
Astha Malik (Zendesk): Product Marketing 101
Product marketing is used quite often, but not everyone understands it well. Zendesk’s Astha Malik explains all you need to know about product marketing, and how it’s connected to the company at various revenue stages.
Segment’s Peter Reinhardt – learning how to sell
Segment – a customer data platform – was in news last year when it was acquired by Twilio. However, there’s a lot of other things that make it unique, including the story of its inception. In this podcast, listen to its co-founder and CEO Peter Reinhardt as he shares the journey of Segment, along with his sales philosophy, revenue operations, and more.
Dover: How to Get Customers without a Product or Website with George Carollo
Dover is an end-to-end recruiting platform that uses advanced software to find the perfect candidates and drives the recruiting process. However, it’s the story of how its co-founder George Carollo got his initial customers without even having a product or website, that’s quite fascinating.
Watch
Where SaaS Companies Fail | Matt Wolach
While we talk about successful SaaS companies, it’s equally important to talk about companies that didn’t succeed. This will help one understand what went wrong and not repeat those mistakes. In this video, Matt Wolach talks about four reasons most companies fail, why such issues arise, how to overcome them, and more.
