From big acquisitions to bigger funding rounds, the past week was full of action for the SaaS industry. And if you’re finding it difficult to find all the news that’s worth your attention, then read on…
Table of Contents
News of the week
As the world is moving towards cloud and subscription model, we’re seeing a lot of consolidation among traditional players. Citrix has been acquired by PE firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital (it’s an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management) for an astounding $16.5billion. Citrix will be combined with Tibco, resulting in the companies having over 400,000 customers and over a 100million users in 100 countries.
Bot platforms software Gupshup has announced the acquisition of cloud communications software startup Knowlarity. While the terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, it’s pegged at $100million, and will help Gupshup strengthen its voice messaging and video capabilities.
Related read: Interview with Beerud Sheth, Co-founder and CEO at Gupshup
LogMeIn rebrands as GoTo, streamlines product portfolio
LogMeIn – the company behind products like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and more – has rebranded to GoTo. It has also simplified its product line, which falls in two categories: unified communications and collaboration.
Related read: Interview with Rahul Sharma, Managing Director at LogMeIn India
Alphabet Q4 earnings: Google Cloud revenue jumps 45 percent
Google’s parent company announced its Q4 results last week where it highlighted that Google Cloud’s revenue increased by 45 percent y-o-y to $5.5billion. The internet giant also mentioned that Google Cloud saw more than 2,000 cloud product and feature releases last year.
Related reads: Google is searching for a way to win the cloud |With Google Cloud billion-dollar deals up 65 percent, Alphabet pours on the gas
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Software startup Chargebee valued at $3.5billion in latest funding round
Subscription billing software Chargebee has more than doubled its valuation since last year as it got $250million funding led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Global. Valued at $3.5billion, the company will be utilizing the amount towards product innovation and global expansion.
Sequoia-backed Productboard raises $125million in new round
Product management software Productboard has nabbed a $125million investment to become a unicorn. The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group and values the company at $1.7billion.
RudderStack raises $56million for its customer data platform
RudderStack, a data management software, has closed a $56million Series B round. The investment was led by Insight Partners. The startup also highlighted that its revenue has grown 4.5x between 2020 and 2021, while its employee base has also increased to 115 people.
Torii puts your business teams in sync as your tech stack evolves
With the explosion of SaaS, companies are unable to manage all the SaaS applications they might be using. Torii brings all the apps in one place, so that companies can see if there are those which aren’t worthwhile. It has seized $50million in Series B round led by Tiger Global Management to expand further.
Paris-based HR software for deskless workers Snapshift has closed a $45million investment. Led by Highland Europe, the company aims to hire 150 people across tech, product, customer support, marketing, and sales.
Wrk secures $43million to help businesses automate common workflows
The pandemic has given a rise to automation software, especially in the form of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or otherwise. While there are giants like UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere, there are new entrants as well. Wrk, a Montreal-based automation software offers a range of tools for automation, including bots, API integrations, etc. It has raised $43.56million in Series A funding.
Metronome raises $30million to help software companies shift to usage-based pricing models
The usage-based pricing model is seeing a lot of interest, but it’s not easy for a company to implement. Seeing this gap, Metronome has developed a billing and data infrastructure platform that can reliably process data at scale. It has gotten $30million in Series A funding led by A16z.
Flip, a chat and HR app for frontline workers, raises $30million as it passes 1million users
Snapshift isn’t the only app in its category that raised funding last week. Flip has also raised $30million Series A as it surpasses 1million users. The funding was co-led by Notion Ventures and HV Capital.
Must reads
Why B2B marketing needs to care about PLG
5 interesting learnings from ZoomInfo at almost $1billion in ARR
How to create a SaaS content strategy that drives product signups
Listen to
Re-thinking enterprise SaaS marketing with Nivedha Sridhar of Facilio
Facility management is a conventional industry where most of the customers are offline. So how does a software in this space target customers? In this podcast, Facilio’s Director – Marketing Nivedha Sridhar shares how the company managed to carve a niche for itself.
Jordan Walker and Justin Mitchell (Yac): the $400k tweet
Yac, or “Yelling Across Cubicles”, started as a side project. Today, it has raised $11million in total to help companies end unproductive meetings by focusing on asynchronous communication. In this podcast, its co-founders Jordan Walker and Justin Mitchell share their journey, how they leveraged Twitter, and how they’re building a real community online.
Marketing hyper-growth at scale with Klaviyo Head of Marketing Kady Srinivasan
Klaviyo is one of the most popular marketing automation software. In this episode, its Head of Marketing Kady Srinivasan talks about how companies can scale their team and campaigns in a hyper-growth fashion.
Watch
Lowell Ricklefs: top metrics that drive higher SaaS valuations and you don’t know about selling your SaaS
In this video, Traction Advising’s CEO and Founder Lowell Ricklefs shares all one needs to know about SaaS valuation and how to go about selling a SaaS business. Ricklefs also discusses his journey leading up to Traction Advising, an M&A firm that helps SaaS companies with $5million+ ARR get acquired.
