A lot can happen in a week – that’s the sense you get when you take a look at the SaaS weekly roundup, where we bring you the news that you shouldn’t miss in the world of SaaS. The past week was no different, so without wasting any more time, let’s dive right in.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Citrix is acquiring Wrike from Vista for $2.25billion
The biggest news of the week is that Citrix has announced the plans to acquire project management software Wrike from Vista Equity Partners. Vista had bought Wrike just two years ago, and Citrix has purchased it at $2.25billion. The acquisition will help Citrix improve its digital workspace experience for customers.
IBM really wants to be your multicloud integrator and can win
Instead of going directly against the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, IBM is aiming to ensure that it becomes a multicloud integrator. Not only IBM has Red Hat in its portfolio, it has been acquiring companies like Taos, Nordcloud, and 7Summits, which are consulting and cloud integration firms.
Google Cloud offers image search, recommendations service for retailers
Google Cloud has introduced two new features called Vision API product search and Recommendations AI for retailers. Launched as part of Product Discovery Solutions for Retail, these are machine learning-based features. The Vision search function will help retailer’s customers upload a picture and receive a list of products that match the picture, whereas Recommendations will be able to map the customer’s shopping journey, and make product recommendations accordingly.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
TripActions raises $155million to help enterprises analyze travel and expense data
Booking management platform TripActions has closed a $155million Series E round co-led by A16z and Addition Ventures. With a valuation of $5billion, the company has now received a total funding of $665million.
Personio raises $125million on a $1.7billion valuation for an HR platform targeting SMEs
Germany-based HR platform Personio has raised $125million at a lofty valuation of $1.7billion – much higher than its valuation of $500million a year ago. The company would be using the funding to expand in Europe and improve its product.
Quali raises $54million to automate cloud management and deployment
With the growing cloud market, we’re seeing new companies emerging in the space. Quali offers sandbox software for cloud and DevOps automation, and it has raised $54million led by Greenfield Partners and JVP.
eCommerce tech company Bold Commerce helps companies sell their products not just online, but opt for an omnichannel strategy. It has gotten $27million Series C funding led by OMERS Ventures.
Ottawa cloud backup startup Rewind raised $19million CAD Series A
Canada’s Rewind has nabbed a $19million CAD Series A financing for its backup-as-a-service offering. Led by Inovia Capital, the company offers backup services for companies like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Trello.
Salesforce leads $15M investment in Asian HR tech platform Darwinbox
Salesforce makes its first investment in an Indian company. Darwinbox, an HR software, has bagged a $15million Series C financing round. The company would be using the funding to expand to more countries, and even look at acquisitions.
Related tweet: https://twitter.com/dkhare/status/1351369302817996803
proSapient raises $10million Series A led by Smedvig Capital to expand expert network platform
proSapient, a SaaS platform for managing expert networks to gather data for investors, has received $10million Series A round led by Smedvid Capital. The amount will be used to expand internationally.
Landbot closes $8million Series A for its ‘no code’ chatbot builder
“No-code” chatbot building software Landbot has received $8million funding led by Swanlaab. The Series A round will help company double its team among other things.
Must reads
5 examples of SaaS products with viral loops
5 interesting learnings from Twilio at $2billion in ARR
Pricing insights from 2,200 SaaS companies
Listen to
AJ (Carrd): the accidental founder
Listen to the inspiring story of a creator – AJ – who started Carrd to make it extremely easy to create one-page websites. Little did he know that it’ll take off, and he’d reach to 800k users. Today, Carrd is making more than a million dollars in revenue, and he shares the evolution of the company along with how he changed his mindset about Carrd no longer being a side hustle.
Company Culture with Nicolas Dessaigne, Co-Founder at Algolia
In the fireside chat between Nicolas Dessaigne, Co-founder and BOD at Algolia and Stephen Cummins, CEO at AppSelekt, Nicolas discusses the experience of starting a company, and raising funding, among other things. He also talks about how a company can build a world-class culture.
Watch
How I make $10,000/month with my SaaS
In this video, Mike Slaats, founder of user feedback tool Upvoty shares how the company grew to $10k MRR. He shares tips as to how to find the idea, how to get the initial users, how to leverage communities, and more.
