Acquisitions, large funding rounds, quarterly results – you name it, and the world of SaaS delivered on all that and more. And to help you navigate it all, we present to you the latest edition of the SaaS weekly roundup.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Francisco Partners, TPG agree to buy Dell’s Boomi for $4billion
It seems that Dell is divesting its assets. Just last month, it hived off VMware, and now it’s selling off Boomi to PE firms Francisco Partners and TPG. The deal will reportedly be valued at $4billion. Dell had acquired Boomi, a service that integrates different cloud platforms, back in 2010.
Bill.com to buy Divvy for $2.5billion
It seems that expense management software are suddenly in vogue. While Brex and Ramp have raised significant funding, Divvy, a Utah-based software has been acquired by Bill.com, a cloud-based accounting software. The news came in just after some reports that cited sources, and the deal has been pegged at $2.5billion ($625million in cash, and $1.875billion in stock).
Kahoot acquires Clever, the US-based edtech portal, for up to $500million
EdTech company Kahoot has been on the tear lately. After acquiring Drops and Actimo, it has announced the acquisition of Clever, a US-based startup that provides a single sign-on portal for educators, students, and their families. The deal has been pegged at between $435 and $500million depending upon how the team meets various performance milestones.
Twilio beats earnings estimates on strong pandemic growth
Like most earnings reports by tech companies, Twilio has managed to beat analysts’ expectations. It announced revenue of $590million, up 62 percent from $364.8million in the same period, last year. The cloud communications software announced that it has 235,000 customers as compared to 190,000 customers in the first quarter of 2020.
Dropbox beats Q1 expectations with revenue up 12 percent
Yet another SaaS company that beat expectations is Dropbox, which announced revenue of $511.6million which increased by 12 percent y-o-y. Its total ARR is $2.112billion, up 13 percent in the same period last year.
Oracle updates its Analytics Cloud
Oracle seems to be going all-in on the cloud. During its Oracle Live virtual event series, it has announced major updates to its Analytics Cloud service. Along with UX improvements, there’s now a mobile app, support for infographics / data stories, ML explainability, graph, and text analytics, among others.
Facebook Workplace reaches 7 million paid subscribers
Facebook’s enterprise offering – Workplace – has more than 7million paid users. While this has grown 40 percent from the last year, it’s nowhere comparable to other collaboration software such as Microsoft Teams and Slack.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Acronis banks $250million in funds to grow portfolio, partners
Data security firm Acronis has received $250million in funding led by PE firm CVC Capital. The amount will be used to add support for more workload types for Cyber Protect, as well as acquisitions. The backup software company will also expand its channel partners.
Subscription billing software for e-commerce companies, ReCharge has announced a $227million Series B growth round. Valued at $2.1billion, it’s worth noting that it had raised $50million Series A in January last year, and before that, it has been bootstrapped. ReCharge also mentioned that its ARR grew 146 percent in 2020, while revenue grew over 136 percent.
Business management software for small businesses and freelancer Honeybook has raised a $155million Series D round. Led by Durable Capital Partners LP, the company’s valuation has gone beyond $1billion, making it a unicorn. The funding will be used for product development and expanding the team.
OKR software Workboard has nabbed a $75milion Series D funding. The round was led by Softbank Group and values the company at $800million. The amount will be used to scale the employee base to 250 to 400 people. It’ll also expand its global footprint.
Cybersecurity compliance startup Vanta raises $50million
San Francisco-based Vanta is known for its automated security and compliance platform. It allows companies to prepare for SOC 2 audits, while automatically monitoring all the cloud services. The startup has gotten $50million in Series A funding.
Huntress raises $40million to become the go-to cybersecurity platform for SMBs
Security is paramount for companies these days, and that’s why we’re seeing a lot of funding announcements. Huntress, a provider of managed detection and response (MDR) has received a $40million Series B investment. The round was led by JMI Equity, and aims to use the money to improve its product and add more channel partners.
Timescale grabs $40M Series B as it goes all in on cloud version of time series database
Two years after raising $15million Series A funding, Timescale – the company behind the open-source TimescaleDB time-series database – has gotten $40million Series B financing. Led by Redpoint Ventures, the company would be focusing on the cloud for database adoption.
Must reads
How to create SaaS content for increased acquisition & retention
Risk discounts and usage-based pricing
Workday CEO: the future is about data, insights and predictions
Listen to
Paperform: how a developer bootstrapped a SaaS to $1.5million+ ARR – with Dean McPherson
There are a number of online form builder software out there, and yet Paperform has managed to stand out while being bootstrapped. Listen to its co-founder Dean McPherson sharing his journey, the idea behind Paperform, and how he has managed to grow it to $1.5million+ in ARR.
Randy Frisch, CMO at Uberflip on how and when to think about category creation
We hear so many companies that have been category creators, but how and why do they do it? What are the pros and cons of this strategy? Hear it all from Uberflip’s CMP, a company that pioneered the content experience platform back in 2012. Randy Frisch shares the early days and challenges for Uberflip, and how it’s planning its future.
Pricing your SaaS products for optimum LTV and growth with Ajit Ghuman
We’ve said this multiple times now – pricing is a make-or-break factor for a SaaS business. But how does one go about it? In this podcast, Ajit Ghuman, Product Marketing Head at Narvar shares how a company should price their product, whether it’s for SME’s or large enterprises.
Watch
SaaS acquisitions and what you need to know
The beauty of SaaS is that one can start a company as a side hustle, or create it single-handedly. That also means that such small SaaS companies are perfect acquisition targets too. However, if you are looking to buy a SaaS company, how should you go about it? Watch this video where MicroAcquire’s (a popular startup acquisition marketplace) founder Andrew Gazdecki and Chris Reedy, VP of Acquisitions at SureSwift Capital discuss the strategies and things to keep in mind.
