Blockbuster quarterly earnings, big acquisitions, and significant fundraising announcements – this week saw it all. So if you are wondering what the past week had in store for the world of SaaS, then this edition is for you. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Twitter’s Dorsey leads blockbuster $29billion buyout of Australian BNPL giant Afterpay
Payment processing company Square made its biggest acquisition as of yet by paying $29billion in an all-stock deal for Australia-based Afterpay. Afterpay is a lending provider (buy now, pay later), a model that’s becoming more popular of late.
Qualtrics to acquire Clarabridge for $1.1billion in stock
Qualtrics has been in news this year, and this time it’s for the acquisition of Clarabridge. Clarabridge uses AI to go through social media posts and customer support calls to find how the customer experience, which augments Qualtrics’ offerings. The deal has been pegged at $1.125billion.
Social media manager Hootsuite acquires conversational AI-platform Heyday for $48million
Hootsuite is a popular social media management software, but now it’s aiming to grow beyond that as it has bought conversational platform Heyday. With this purchase, Hootsuite will allow users to chat with brands directly via text and video.
Zoom reaches $85million settlement over user privacy, ‘Zoombombing’
Last year, video conferencing software Zoom got in the limelight due to its ease of use and the cases of Zoombombing. Now, it has settled a lawsuit in the US where it’s agreed to pay $85million to improve its security practices.
Microsoft’s Windows 365 Cloud PC service will range from $20 to $162 per user per month
Accessing windows from anywhere – that’s what Microsoft promises with its Windows 365 Cloud PC service. The Redmond giant has now announced the pricing, which ranges from $20 per month and goes all the way up to $162 per month. The pricing varies depending upon the number of virtual cores, RAM, and storage one opts for.
Dropbox beats Q2 estimates with a focus on distributed work
Cloud services company Dropbox managed to beat Wall Street expectations by focusing on distributed work. It had revenue of $530.6million, which is up 13.5 percent y-o-y.
RingCentral beats Q2 estimates with strong partnerships
Cloud communications provider RingCentral saw its revenue increasing 36 percent year-on-year to $379million. The company also announced several partnerships in the previous quarter, and announced that it’s expecting revenue between $1.539billion and $1.545billion in the entire year.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Two-year-old events start-up Hopin boomed in the pandemic. Now it’s a $7.75billion business
Even as the world is moving back to normalcy, it seems that virtual events are here to stay. Perhaps that’s why virtual event platform Hopin continues to draw investors’ attention. The company has raised $450million co-led by Arena Holdings and Altimeter Capital. Valued at $7.75billion, it has over 100,000 customers.
Rapyd raises $300million on $8.75billion valuation as fintech-as-a-service continues to boom
With the rise of neobanks, infrastructure providers are also set to grow. Rapyd, a fintech-as-a-service company offers things like payments, mobile wallets, money transfers, and more. It has closed a $300million Series E funding round. While it didn’t disclose its valuation, reports suggest that Rapyd is valued at $8.75billion.
EdTech companies are booming in the pandemic, and GoGuardian is no different. Its customer base grew to 10,000 schools (a growth of over 60 percent). To grow further, it has gotten $200million funding led by Tiger Global, which values it over a billion dollars.
FullStory raises $103million at a $1.8billion valuation to combat rage clicks on websites and apps
Digital experience platform FullStory has nabbed a $103million funding. Full Story analyses how people use websites and other digital interfaces. Valued at $1.8billion, the Series D round was led by Permira’s growth fund.
MindTickle bags $100million funding for its role playing-driven sales readiness platform
Sales readiness platform MindTickle has joined the unicorn club with its latest fundraise of $100million. Led by SoftBank, it’s now valued at $1.2billion.
Yellow.ai raises $78million to expand its AI chatbot platform globally
Conversational AI platform Yellow.ai has gotten $78million Series C funding. Led by WestBridge Capital, the startup will expand to the US market while increasing its employee base.
Superhuman raises $75million for its waitlist-only email productivity app
Email app Superhuman has received $75million in funding led by IVP. The Series C round values the company at $825million. Worth noting that Superhuman has never launched publicly, and still has a waitlist of over 450,000 people. It’ll be using the amount to bring support for Outlook and expand to Android.
MoEngage raises $32.5million to inject customer engagement with AI
Marketing automation software MoEngage has raised $32.5million led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The startup has a workforce of over 375 people today, and is aiming to open its offices in New York and Boston.
Must reads
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Listen to
Daniel Dines, CEO of UiPath
UiPath is a leader in Robotic Process Automation, and hence its journey is quite fascinating. In this podcast, its co-founder and CEO Daniel Dines shares UiPath’s inception, how it continued to grow since 2005, its future, and more.
The journey of Vymo with Yamini Bhat
While SaaS companies have been able to put India on a map, there aren’t many enterprise-focused companies. Vymo is unique in that regard as its average deal size runs into thousands of dollars. In this podcast, its co-founder Yamini Bhatt shares her journey, how they chose Vymo as a brand name, and how they carved their own niche in the market.
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Principles of Product Led Growth strategy
Product-led growth has become a buzzword of late, but what exactly is it and should you follow it? In this video, host TK Kader shares three principles for PLG strategy.
