Welcome to the third edition of the SaaS weekly roundup for the year 2021. If you look at the funding announcements however, it’s evident that this year would continue the momentum we witnessed in 2020. So let’s take a look at things you may have missed in the world of SaaS in the past 7 days.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Zoom video raises $1.75billion in new stock offering
The breakout hit of 2020 – Zoom – seems to be capitalizing on its popularity to raise $1.75billion by selling 5.15million shares. The stock price has zoomed (pun intended) by as much as 380 percent in the past 12 months, which shows how it has become a default for everyone working from home.
Salesforce launches loyalty management service for B2B, B2C companies
Salesforce has announced a new service that will make it easier for B2B and B2C companies build and customize loyalty programs. Built on top of Customer 360 platform, the service will offer a connected loyalty experience to users.
How Chargebee & Pipe are helping subscription businesses thrive
Chargebee and Pipe had recently partnered to help businesses get upfront payment basis their subscription revenues. In this piece, Chargebee highlights how the program works and how companies can take advantage of the same.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Rapyd raises $300million on a $2.5billion valuation to boost its fintech-as-a-service API
“Fintech-as-a-service” platform Rapyd that offers payments, banking services, and fraud protection among other things, has closed a massive $300million funding. With a valuation of $2.5billion, the company will be expanding its team and build out more technology along with looking at acquisitions.
Cockroach Labs scores $160million Series E on $2billion valuation
The company behind CockroachDB, has been on a fundraising spree. After raising a $86.8million Series D round in May 2020, it has received $160million Series E funding, taking its valuation to $2billion. The co-founder and CEO Spencer Kimball also mentions that COVID-19 has shifted the company’s thinking, as it’s aiming to introduce the open-source version of CockroachDB for unlimited trial instead of the current 30-day free trial.
Webflow raises $140million, pushing its valuation to $2.1billion
No-code software Webflow, which makes it easier for anyone to build websites, has become a double unicorn as it has gotten $140million Series B funding. CEO Vlad Magdalin has stated that this was an opportunistic round for the company as it had ended 2020 as cash-flow positive.
Workato raises $110million for its business workflow automation platform
Workato, an integration and automation platform, has nabbed a $110million Series D funding. With a valuation of $1.7billion, the company will be using the money to expand its customer success program, launch a user conference this year and scale its teams.
JumpCloud closes $100million round as remote work drives cloud directory service demand
Cloud-native directory service JumpCloud has gotten $100million Series E funding led by BlackRock. It’ll be using the amount for product development and investing in its sales and marketing programs.
Descript raises $30million to build the next generation of video and audio editing tools
Descript has made a name for itself in the audio transcription space, and recently, it introduced video editing too. To grow faster, it has received $30million Series B funding led by Spark Capital.
E-commerce infrastructure startup Nacelle closes $18million Series A
Headless e-commerce platform Nacelle has raised an $18million Series A round led by Inovia. The startup states that small stores can integrate Nacelle “without having to rebuild their stores“.
In numbers
Amid cloud spending boom, Microsoft Azure, AWS gain IT spend
Must reads
Pricing transformations in 2021
A new and innovative way for Google to kill your SaaS startup
Listen to
Branding (vs) Performance Marketing – Siddharth Sharma, Head Marketing, Verloop.io
In this podcast, host Raj Swaminathan talks to Verloop.io’s Siddharth Sharma about branding and performance marketing. They talk about what’s more important depending upon the stage / target audience of the company. They also discuss the role of retention, and metrics that companies should track, among other things.
Productboard founder and CEO Hubert Palan on mastering product strategy
Productboard is a product management software that helps companies and product teams understand the users’ needs and have a common product roadmap. In this episode, its founder and CEO shares how he got the idea, why product plays an important role, and more.
An introduction to Venture Debt with Donatella Callegaris, Flashpoint Venture Capital
Venture debt is emerging as a great option for SaaS companies to raise funding without diluting their equity. In this episode, Flashpoint Venture Capital’s Donatella Callegaris shares about how it works, and things that companies should be careful about.
Watch
How to scale a remote business with Liam Martin @ Time Doctor
Remote work has become the norm amidst the pandemic. In this episode, Dan Martell talks to Time Doctor’s Liam Martin about how to run and scale remote businesses, along with lesser-talked things such as depression among entrepreneurs, importance of empathy, and more.
Related read: Interview with Liam Martin, Co-founder at Time Doctor
