This week, the search giant announced that it’s imposing a 60-minute limit for Google Meet for free users. While this may not be a piece of good news for many people, believe us when we say that the world of SaaS continued to throw a lot of surprises — right from significant acquisitions to new launches and fund-raising activities. Without any further delay, let’s jump right in.
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News of the week
Broadcom in talks to buy software firm SAS
Broadcom, a leading hardware-based player in the networking space with its chipsets, is setting its sights on the software. In 2018, it had acquired CA Technologies, and now, it’s acquiring analytics, business intelligence, and data management software SAS. The deal has been valued at between $15 and $20 billion.
Sales intelligence company ZoomInfo is acquiring a leading player in the conversational intelligence space — Chorus.ai. Valued at $575million, the deal will help ZoomInfo offer better data-driven decisions to organizations.
Related read: ZoomInfo’s CEO Henry Schuck on how the deal could be a game-changer
Microsoft agrees to acquire cybersecurity company RiskIQ
The Redmond giant is beefing up its cybersecurity offerings. It’s purchasing RiskIQ, which is cloud software for detecting security threats. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, reports suggest that it’s worth $500million.
The leading field service management software company ServiceMax is going public via a SPAC as it merges with Pathfinder. It’ll be trading on NASDAQ under the SMAX symbol, it also announced the acquisition of LiquidFrameworks, an FMS provider that’s focused on the energy sector. The transaction is valued at $1.4billion, and will also help ServiceMax raise $355million.
Microsoft puts PCs in the cloud with Windows 365
Apart from the acquisition, Microsoft was in news for other reasons too. After launching Windows 11 not so long ago, the company has now announced a new service dubbed Windows 365. As the name suggests, it allows businesses to access Cloud PCs from anywhere as they can stream Windows 10 or Windows 11 on a web browser.
Zoho launches business intelligence platform infused with AI
Zoho is bringing its Business Intelligence platform Zoho DataPrep, Zoho Analytics, Zoho Show presentation software, and Zoho Sites for building websites into one tool. This will enable organizations to aggregate data and present it easily.
Twilio unveils new tools for live audio and video streaming
Cloud communications platform Twilio wants to become an effective customer engagement platform as well. It has released Twilio Live, which helps companies build personalized experiences for video streaming. What differentiates Twilio is that it lets companies create custom solutions for audio and video streaming. Reddit for example, is developing Reddit Talk for developing the live audio feature, ala Clubhouse.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Remote closes $150million Series B to help companies manage changing workforce
Remote work has unlocked new possibilities. Chief among them is the fact that the workforce can be from anywhere across the globe. Remote.com is built for such a use case only. And it has now received $150 million Series B funding to continue on this path. The round was led by Accel, and brings the company to the unicorn club.
WebOps platform Pantheon raises $100million from SoftBank Vision Fund
Pantheon is a WebOps platform that offers a serverless hosting platform for developers. It’s now venturing into the digital experience category to have a solid workflow for the various stakeholders in the company. It has closed a $100million Series E funding round at a billion-dollar-plus valuation.
Customer data platform Amperity has joined the unicorn list with its latest fundraise of $100million. The company’s software help organizations improve their marketing campaigns as it can connect to different data points like customer emails, website traffic, app usage, etc.
Former Nutanix execs launch new startup with $50million seed round
In one of the largest seed rounds ever, DevRev – a SaaS startup started by two Nutanix executives – has nabbed a $50million funding. As the name indicates, the startup aims to bring developers and revenue functionality closer.
LinkSquares announces $40million in Series B funding led by Sorenson Capital
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) company has closed a $40million Series B investment. Led by Sorenson Capital, the company has raised $61.4million to date. It also highlighted that it has grown over 1,000 percent within two years.
Ex-Plaid employees raise $30million for Stytch, an API-first passwordless authentication platform
Passwords should be a thing of the past… that’s what it seems like when you look at many startups working in this space. Now a new startup is aiming to make it easier for authenticating the user without passwords. Dubbed Stytch, it has finished a $30million Series A funding round led by Thrive Capital.
Must reads
This early-stage marketing expert says ‘B2B SaaS is actually very, very cool now’
SaaS and cloud management challenges for the digital workplace
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