SaaS is a global phenomenon, and if there’s any doubt about that, then you just need to see the funding announcements this week. Of course, the week saw a lot of other action in the world of software-as-a-service. So without further ado, here’s your weekly roundup of all things SaaS.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Slack introduces new updates to Workflow Builder
Workplace chat platform Slack has announced a bunch of automation features to improve its Workflow Builder. To recall, the tool was released in 2019, and it’ll now allow users to send their workflows to others. The Salesforce-owned company also announced that it’ll support the conditional logic of “if-then” statements for creating more sophisticated workflows early next year.
A new SaaS war: Accel-backed BrowserStack Vs Sequoia-backed LambdaTest face off
With India becoming a hotbed of SaaS startups, we’re seeing an ugly side of that too. It wasn’t long ago that Zoho took Freshworks to the court, and now a battle between BrowserStack and LambdaTest is brewing. Both are automated testing platforms, and the report suggests that LambdaTest isn’t only poaching BrowserStack’s employees, but asking them about their clients, secret product details, etc.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
OneSignal lands $50million to automatically optimize SMS, in-app and email campaigns
We’re seeing a surge in marketing tools, and OneSignal is no different. It’s a platform that lets mobile apps send notifications (along with usual channels like SMS and email) to their users. It has raised $50million in a Series C investment led by BAM Elevate.
oVice raises $32 million in Series B to develop virtual offices for remote and hybrid teams
Virtual office platform oVice has closed a 45 billion Yen ($32.5million) Series B funding round. It’s a Japan-based company that’s quickly expanding to more markets to become the de facto option for hybrid workplaces, allowing teams to connect with each other in a better manner.
Stockholm-based Billogram bags €15million to expand its payment platform across Europe
The payment revolution is underway, and a lot of fin-tech and SaaS startups are aiming to be at the forefront of the same. The Sweden-based Billogram offers automated payment and invoicing services, including managing recurring payments. It has just raised €15million to fuel its expansion into the European market.
Powering workplaces of tomorrow, deskbird scores $5M to fuel European expansion
Workforce management platform deskbird has secured a $5million pre-Series A funding. The software lets employees plan their office and work-from-home days, book desks, and more. The investment will help the startup expand in the European markets.
In numbers
Must reads
Using SaaS to unlock the potential of the metaverse
SaaS unicorn Exterro on how it identified a massive opportunity to create a global company
5 interesting learnings from Cloudflare at ~$1billion in ARR
Listen to
Marketing masterclass with Praval Singh (VP Marketing, Zoho)
Zoho is the biggest SaaS success story out of India. And it becomes even more impressive, when you consider that it’s completely bootstrapped and doesn’t follow the usual growth strategies. In this podcast, its VP of marketing, Praval Singh shares his decade-long journey at Zoho, how he grew in his role, and what makes Zoho different. He also shares the specific strategies that Zoho has adopted to get customers.
Scaling from $10-$100million ARR: the good, the bad and the ugly with Showpad Co-Founder Pieterjan Bouten
You may not have heard of Showpad, but it’s a leading platform for sales enablement. Listen to its co-founder Pieterjan Bouten as he shares the inception of the company and how it has grown over the years to reach the $100million ARR milestone.
Watch
The hard things about building a SaaS company that nobody talks about, with Øyvind Reed, CEO, Whereby
If you want a raw and real experience of what it takes to build a SaaS company, then this is a must-watch. In this video, video conferencing software Whereby’s CEO Øyvind Reed talks about his journey, why they decided to get venture funding, various highs and lows of the company, and more.
