The Q1 earnings reports from multiple SaaS companies continued to arrive this week as well, and as we’ve seen previously, they have grown amidst the pandemic. We also saw some notable acquisitions in the past few days, and some significant fund-raising activities too. As usual, we’ve a ton of content for you, so read on.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Zoom, which has been enjoying the breakout moment during the global crisis, has shown an impressive growth. Its revenue increased by 169 percent y-o-y to $328.2million for the quarter ending on April 30th, and it has nearly doubled its revenue guidance for the entire year.
Zoom’s CEO Eric S Yuan also announced that the company will be rolling out end-to-end encryption. However, the feature would only be available to paid users, and not for free calls, as it wants to comply with the law enforcement in case people misuse the platform for purposes like repeat offenders for hate speed or content related to child pornography.
Related read: Zoom faces criticism for denying free users e2e encryption
Slack announces record first quarter fiscal year 2021 results
Workplace collaboration software Slack also announced its earnings report for Q1 2020, as it witnessed 50 percent bump in revenue to $201.7million. It also announced that it added 12,000 new paid customers in the period. For the full financial year, it’s expecting its revenue to be between $855million and $870million.
In addition, Slack announced a partnership with AWS, wherein the cloud giant will be using the software for team communication purposes, whereas the former will use AWS Chime to improve upon its voice and video calls.
DocuSign posts strong Q1, enters remote work, digital transformation winner’s circle
Popular electronic signature software Docusign ended the Q1 on a strong note as it added 10,000 new direct customers, and 58,000 self-service customers. It has also beaten analyst expectations with a revenue of $281.1million, which has grown 39 percent from a year ago.
VMware acquires network security firm Lastline, said to lay off 40\% of staff
Just last month, VMware acquired Octarine, and now it’s loosing its purse strings to buy network security firm Lastline. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Techcrunch reports that 40\% of Lastline’s employees will be laid off post the acquisition.
NetApp has announced the acquisition of Israel-based cloud service company, Spot.io. The company offers tools for visibility and automation for cloud services, and has reportedly been acquired for $450million.
Salesforce names Vlocity founder David Schmaier CEO of new Salesforce Industries division
Salesforce had acquired Vlocity in February this year, and now it has announced that Vlocity’s CEO David Schmaier would be leading a new division called Salesforce Industries. The division will be focusing on industry-specific CRM tools.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Goldman Sachs leads $100M Series C round in Chinese ERP system provider Jushuitan
While we don’t hear much about SaaS companies coming out of China, that might change soon. Chinese e-commerce ERP system developer Jushuitan has announced that it has raised $100million Series C round which was led by Goldman Sachs. The company will be using the money to upgrade and optimize its product, and expand to overseas markets.
Automation isn’t a new thing, but over the years it has come to a point where we are able to automate a lot of manual tasks. RPA or Robotic Process Automation takes that to a level above, and a company working in this sector has raised a significant amount to establish a lead. Hyperscience has received Series C funding of $60million to grow faster.
Lately, no-code tools has become a hot space. Bryter, a company aiming to help non-tech departments in an enterprise to build apps has announced a Series A funding of $16millin.
Bonusly, the platform for employee recognition, raises $9 million Series A
With employees working remotely, recognizing their work is more important than ever. Bonusly, launched in 2013, believes that employee recognition should happen all year around. It has raised $9million Series A funding to expand further.
Tictrac secures $7.5M to expand employee wellbeing platform as WFH baloons
Continuing the theme of employee welfare, Tictrac has raised $7.5million. The round was led by Puma Private Equity, and will allow the startup to expand its platform for more than 1,000 customers along with letting it expand the Enterprise platform.
Must reads
Sridhar Vembu’s vision from the village
Microsoft takes on Zoom and Slack in a battle for your work computer
Simplifying sales tax for SaaS in the US
How FarEye’s focus on flexibility and customization allows it to adapt in the toughest of times
Listen to
Matt Epstein – CMO at Rippling – SaaS marketing is broken: how to get more creative with marketing
In this podcast, Rippling‘s CMO Matt Epstein shares his thoughts on why he thinks that marketing is broken. He also shares some of the innovative campaign ideas they tried at Rippling and how to build a perfect marketing team among other things.
Colin Nederkoorn of Customer.io
Customer.io, a marketing automation software, has been in the industry for over eight years and has reached $10million in ARR. Listen to its Founder and CEO Colin Nederkoorn sharing his lessons along the way, why they’ve kept their expectations realistic in terms of growth and more.
Measuring the subscription economy with Zuora’s Tien Tzuo
Tien Tzuo is considered as the pioneer of the subscription economy as he also authored the book “Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company’s Future – and What to Do About It“. Currently, he’s the CEO of Zuora and he talks about the shift from selling product to subscriptions, how to build a long-term sustainable startup as well as the power of storytelling.
Watch
Do we need another video conferencing system? ERA CEO Mark Nadal bets yes
If you’re looking for an open-source alternative to Zoom, then checkout out ERA’s Meething. Launched less than two months ago, the video conferencing software is built on a decentralized database engine to keep your conversations private and secure. In this video, ERA’s CEO Mark Nadal shares his vision behind Meething, the fact that it’s backed by Mozilla’s Fix the Internet incubator, and more.
SaaS sales and marketing strategy explained (six questions to help you 10x your growth)
In case you are trying to figure out your company’s sales and marketing strategy, then this video could be a good starting point. The host TK Kader talks about six questions that include ideal customer profile, market segment, and pricing strategy, among others.
