The first month of the year still hasn’t ended, but the world of SaaS continues to throw surprises continuously. From sizeable funding announcements to companies going public, and from acquisitions to quarterly statements – the past week had it all. So, let’s take a look at everything that happened in the SaaS space in the last seven days.
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News of the week
Qualtrics IPO raises $1.55billion, exceeds expectations as stock jumps
Qualtrics has started the year on a high note for SaaS companies IPOing this year. Spun off from SAP, the company listed the shares at $30, much higher than the initially planned range of $20 to $25. The stock surged by more than 50 percent upon the debut.
Related watch: ‘It’s an incredible moment:’ Qualtrics founder on IPO
SAP is buying Berlin business process automation startup Signavio
This wasn’t the only reason SAP was in news this week. The company has purchased process automation startup Signavio for reportedly $1.2billion. SAP believes that this acquisition will at as a stronger proposition for its customers.
The Redmond giant is moving strength to strength with its cloud business, Azure. Its revenue growth was up by 50 percent in the Q2, and the company is also having a solid forecast of as much as $2.5billion higher than analysts’ estimates.
ServiceNow reports fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results
Leading SaaS company ServiceNow has announced its Q4 2020 results. Its subscription revenue has growth 32 percent y-o-y to $1,184million. the company also stated that it has close to 1,100 customers with annual contract value of $1million.
Salesforce launches Vaccine Cloud, targets government, healthcare
Vaccine management in the current scenario is quite important, so it’s no wonder that companies are aiming to offer a simplified solution for the same. Salesforce Vaccine Cloud will replace Work.com for Vaccines, and is already being used by more than 35 international and government agencies.
Workday acquires Peakon for $700million to capture real-time employee sentiment data
Enterprise giant Workday has announced the acquisition of Peakon, a HR software startup that helps businesses engage with their employees in a better manner along with measure sentiment through regular surveys. The deal is pegged at $700million, and will help Workday offer a “continuous listening platform” to its customers.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Calendly’s $350million Series B: we’re just getting started
Appointment scheduling software Calendly has been on a tear, especially amidst coronavirus, when it’s more important than ever to schedule video calls and more. The company has just announced a massive fundraise of $350million as part of its Series B round.
Related read: How Atlanta’s Calendly turned a scheduling nightmare into a $3B startup
IAC’s Vimeo raises new funds at $6billion valuation
Vimeo – which will be hived off from IAC (InterActive Corp) soon – has raised $300million from T.Rowe Price Group and Oberndorf Enterprises. The amount will double its valuation to $6billion, which comes just two months after getting $150million in November 2020.
Klook banks $200million to bolster its merchant SaaS offering
Hong Kong-based Klook has received $200million funding as part of its Series E round. Led by Aspex Management, the travel booking app will not only improve its consumer-centric offerings, but also expand its SaaS-based merchant solutions.
SparkPost raises $180million for innovation and growth
Transactional email software SparkPost has raised $180million from LLR Partners, NewSpring Capital and PNC Bank. The company will be using the amount for acquisitions and improve its product.
Cloud data protection platform OwnBackup has nabbed $167.5million Series D funding. Co-led by Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures, the investment comes just six months after a funding round of $50million.
B2B payments startup Melio reaches $1.3billion valuation following $110million Series C2
After raising $80million Series C round in September last year, payments startup Melio has announced $110million Series C2 funding led by Coatue Ventures. The latest funding values the company at $1.3billion.
Pilot raises $60million Series C to modernize the back office
Accounting software Pilot has nabbed a $60million Series C funding. With a valuation of $600million, the startup will expand its feature set for back office operations.
Fintech startup Check raises $35million, led by Stripe
Payroll software Check has received $35million led by Thrive Capital and Stripe. The startup makes it easy to add payroll to management software.
Must reads
Why Oracle and SAP are fighting over startups
I asked 50+ developers how they buy software. Here’s what I learned.
Are open source databases dead?
Growth hacking: what it is and how SaaS businesses can use it to optimize growth
Listen to
How to turnaround a struggling SaaS company – with Daniel Scrivner
Daniel Scrivner, the CEO of Flow, a task and project management software, joins Omer Khan to talk about the fledgling company when he joined it two years back. He shares the journey of how he was able to turn Flow around and grow its revenue.
RevOps And SaaS, with Jason Reichl
In this episode of SaaS Boss, Go Nimbly’s co-founder Jason Reichl shares everything about RevOps. He talks about what it means, how it impacts revenue generation, and how it should be structured, among other things.
Scaling sales teams: AMA with Jonathan Anguelov
Aircall’s co-founder and COO Jonathan Anguelov discusses how they were able to scale their sales team to achieve massive growth.
Watch
The future of SaaS investing, Machine Learning, & data privacy (w/ Raoul Pal & Gordon Ritter)
Emergence Capital’s founder Gordan Ritter converse with Raoul Pal about the evolution of the software industry, the current state of SaaS segment, and more. They also discuss about the future of machine learning, the issues that could arise due to data privacy, and more.
