As we’re inching close towards the end of the year, if you are thinking that the SaaS space would be slowing down as well, then you couldn’t be more wrong. Despite the holiday season, we’re seeing plenty of acquisitions, funding announcements, and more. And if you want to find all of them in one place, then read on…
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News of the week
Sweden’s Ericsson snaps up cloud firm Vonage in $6.2billion deal
In what will be among the biggest deals in the SaaS space this year, telecom giant Ericsson has announced the acquisition of cloud communications company Vonage. The all-cash deal is pegged at $6.2billion and will help Ericsson strengthen its 5G portfolio.
EU companies issue formal complaint against Microsoft OneDrive Windows integration
Nextcloud, along with 30 other European companies, has filed a complaint against Microsoft in the EU for its anti-competitive behavior. If this sounds familiar, then it is. Just like the case against the Redmond giant for bundling its Internet Explorer and not giving users choice in the late 90s, the “Coalition for a Level Playing Field” mentions that the company is aggressively pushing OneDrive Cloud. The coalition also claims that OneDrive’s market share in the EU grew to 66 percent, while the market share of other cloud providers declined from 26 percent to 16 percent.
Zoom lands more large customers in Q3, beats market estimates
Despite fears that the video conferencing software Zoom’s growth will be saturated as the world opens up, it has continued to grow. As per its latest report for Q3, Zoom managed to bear the market expectations and landed several large customers. Its total revenue during the quarter was $1.051billion, which increased by 35 percent y-o-y.
VMware beats Q3 estimates with revenue up 11 percent
As VMware continues to transition to the SaaS business model, its license revenue increased significantly in Q3. The recently hived-off company from Dell beat market expectations with a revenue of $3.19billion, which is an 11 percent increase from the same period last year. Its subscription and SaaS revenue for the third quarter was $820million.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Vercel raises $150M Series D as it looks to build an end-to-end front-end development platform
Vercel, a company that has developed the Next.js framework, announced $102million Series C funding a couple of months ago. And now, it has raised $150million Series D investment which values it at $2.5billion. The round was led by GGV Capital, and Vercel will be using the investment for hiring and looking for strategic acquisitions as well.
AI chatbot startup Kore.ai extends Series C funding round with backing from Nvidia
Chatbot software continues to drive investor interest, and Kore.ai is no different. In September, it had finalized a $50million Series C round which was led by Vistara Growth and PNC. But now it has been able to extend that round to $73.5million with Nvidia as an investor.
mabl Raises $40M in Series C Funding
SaaS-based intelligent automation software mabl has nabbed $40million Series C funding. Led by Vista Equity Partners, the startup will be using the investment to expand its operations and increase its sales and marketing efforts.
SaaS startup CoreStack snaps $30mn in Series B funding led by Avatar Growth Capital
Cloud governance and compliance software Corestack has snapped up a $30million Series B round led by Avatar Growth Capital. Founded in 2016, CoreStack helps companies address governance challenges as they adopt the cloud. It’ll be using its funding to expand to newer markets.
Taxation is a sticky point, and more so, if one has to navigate several tax policies across the globe. Fonoa aims to solve that for new-age digital companies to help them calculate taxes for selling their products in various parts of the world. The Series A financing was led by OMERS Ventures.
Must reads
Product differentiation: a guide to standing out
Listen to
The Contentful memo: Point Nine’s Christoph Janz on the cold email that led to a unicorn investment
Contentful, a content management software, became a unicorn in July this year. In this podcast, Point Nine’s Christopher Janz shares his investment thesis for leading Contentful’s first round. He also talks about variable pricing mechanisms, how founders can go about pre-emptive funding, and more.
How to scale a successful SaaS sales team with Harry Stebbings, Founder @ 20 VC, and Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder @ SaaStr
SaaStr recently completed an important milestone of 500 podcast episodes. And to celebrate that, SaaStr’s CEO and founder, Jason Lemkins, and OG podcaster Harry Stebbings discuss the future of SaaS. They also talk about how to build a successful SaaS sales team from scratch.
Scaling SaaS companies from VC’s View, with Arthur Nobel
Arthur Nobel, author of best-selling book Leaders of Growth and host of the Leaders of Growth podcast, shares the levers of scaling a SaaS company. He also digs deeper on the difference between scaling the company at the seed stage vs the Series A stage.
Watch
SaaS metrics: the BEST guide to Software as a Service KPIs
A lot has been said about the metrics that a SaaS company needs to track. But if you want a good starting point of what needs to be tracked and why, then watch this video. It focuses on essential indicators like churn late, LTV to CAC ratio, and more.
