There’s not even a single week where we don’t see some big movements in the SaaS industry. The trend continued in the last 7 days as well as we witnessed acquisitions, significant funding announcements, and more. So here’s everything that happened in the last week and is worth your attention.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Razorpay makes international foray with Curlec acquisition
Popularly referred to as India’s answer to Stripe, Razorpay is aiming to expand to more markets. To do so, it has become a majority investor in Malaysia’s fintech firm Curlec. It’ll also enable Razorpay to offer cross-border payments for local Southeast Asian businesses. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Curlec is reported to be worth $20million.
Zendesk receives takeover approaches
It was just in November last year that it was that Zendesk announced its intentions to acquire SurveyMonkey’s parent company. Now, it seems that Zendesk has received a takeover offer itself as its activist shareholder are planning to launch a proxy fight. Zendesk divulged that it received an offer of $127-$132 per share from a group of PE firms, which it has rejected.
TripActions acquires Comtravo and further expands in Europe
While the past two years have been brutal for travel, it seems that it’ll see a resurgence sooner than later. That’s why it’s not surprising to see TripActions, a travel management software, consolidating to become stronger. It has acquired Comtravo, a travel management company that operates in the DACH and Scandinavian regions. Combined, the company will have offer 7,500 customers across more than 94 countries.
SaaS unicorn Freshworks’ losses grow in Q4; quarterly revenue up by 44\%
India’s Freshworks announced its quarterly results after getting listed on NASDAQ last year. It announced that its net losses have increased to $56.4million in Q4 2021 as compared to $3.6million in the same period in 2020. Its quarterly revenues did grow by 44 percent to $105.5million. It also shared the outlook for 2022 where it expects its revenue to be between $486.5million to $495million.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Marketing tech startup Branch valued at $4 billion after latest funding
Attribution software Branch has nabbed a $300million funding round to reach a $4billion valuation. Led by NEA, its valuation has quadrupled from its last fundraising in September 2019.
Related read: Interview with Mada Seghete, Co-founder and Head of Strategy and Market Development at Branch
API protection platform Salt Security raises $140million
API vulnerability and protection platform Salt Security has closed a $140million Series D investment as it claims 500 percent growth in revenue and 300 percent growth in the number of customers. Led by CapitalG’s growth fund, the company is valued at $1.4billion.
ThriveDX raises $100million to bring security training to both new talent and corporate employees
Cybersecurity has become more important than ever in the remote work era. ThriveDX, formerly HackerU, provides training programs for professionals as well as helping employees become savvy. It has received more than $100million in a round co-led by NightDragon and Prytek, security-focused venture firms.
7shifts raises $80million in Series C funding
Appointment scheduling software for restaurants, 7shifts, has gotten $80million funding as part of the Series C round. Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the company will be using the amount for doubling its team, and improving its product.
Related read: Interview with Jordan Boesch, CEO and co-founder at 7shifts
Airmeet: We’ve raised $35million to build the most immersive event-led engagement platform
Virtual event platform Airmeet has raised $35million in Series B funding. The India-based company aims to create an immersive engagement experience that replicates offline events. The round was led by Prosus Ventures, it’ll be using the amount for expanding to more geographies, and focusing on R&D.
Sardine: Our Series-A announcement
With everything becoming as-a-service, why shouldn’t we focus on fraud prevention as well? As the fintech industry is going through a revolution, it’s important to know what are the actual growth numbers. Sardine provides fraud prevention as a service, and has nabbed $19.5million Series A funding, led by A16z.
Sprinto, a compliance automation platform, has announced a $10million Series A funding led by Elevation Capital. The startup will be deploying the funds towards hiring and R&D.
In numbers
Indian SaaS firms using AI could create $500billion of value by 2030: report
Must reads
4 traits of fast-growing SaaS companies
Listen to
Acquiring SMB 10,000 customers solely from data with Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre
Gorgias is a helpdesk software. In this podcast, its CEO Romain Lapeyre shares how the company managed to reach 10,000 customers by leveraging data.
Mode: how 3 first-time founders built an 8-figure SaaS – with Benn Stancil
Mode is a collaborative platform that allows analysts and data scientists to analyze, visualize, and share data. Its co-founder and chief analytics officer Ben Stancil shares his journey, how they got the first set of customers for Mode, and the way forward.
Watch
Your SaaS metrics are lying to you – startup KPIs w/ Corey Haines of Swipefiles, SavvyCal
A lot has been said about the SaaS metrics. But while most people suggest which ones should be tracked, in this video, Corey Haines from Swipefiles and SavvyCal talks about which metrics should be ignored. He shares why metrics like LTV aren’t useful or why Google Analytics attribution isn’t ideal. He also talks about the alternatives for each of these.
