Acquisitions continue in the SaaS space, and so are the funding announcements. In short, the market continues to be positive about the SaaS ecosystem. And if you are wondering what all you may have missed out on, keep on reading.
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News of the week
Cloud communications firm Sinch nabs Inteliquent for $1.14billion
Stockholm-based Sinch has acquired the US-based voice communications provider, Intelliquent. The deal is worth $1.14billion and will help Sinch have a stronger foothold in the US market against Twilio.
CrowdStrike redefines true XDR with Humio acquisition
CrowdStrike, one of the leading players in the cybersecurity category, has acquired Humio to improve its XDR platform. XDR stands for extended detection and response, and Humio’s log management capabilities will help it achieve the same. The deal is worth $400million and will help CrowdStrike compete against the arch-rival SentinelOne, which coincidentally acquired a similar company in the space, Scalyr.
Palo Alto Networks announces intent to acquire Bridgecrew
The California-based Palo Alto Networks has announced the acquisition of Bridgecrew, a cloud security company. The deal is closed at $156million and will help the company deliver a full security platform to its users.
As Shopify continues to boom, Amazon acquires Selz, a startup that helps e-commerce businesses
Shopify has emerged as a credible threat to the e-commerce giant Amazon. But the world’s biggest retailer isn’t sitting idle either as it has acquired Selz that helps entrepreneurs sell their products online. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, it’s quite possible that Amazon wants to keep its bases covered against Shopify.
Shopify slips after warning revenue growth will slow in 2021
Speaking of Shopify, the e-commerce software company announced its quarterly results this week. Its revenue in Q4 was $978million, which was above analysts’ expectation of $910million. However, the company thinks that the growth will slow down a little, which was reflected by the stock market sentiment as well.
Dropbox announces fourth quarter and fiscal 2020 results
Cloud company Dropbox also announced its quarterly results with its revenues increasing 13% y-o-y to $504.1million. The company also announced that it has surpassed $2billion in ARR.
SaaS startup Freshworks crosses $300million in ARR, business grows 40pc in 2020
One of the biggest SaaS success stories from India, Freshworks has announced that it has crossed $300million ARR, growing 40% year-on-year. The company mentioned that the next milestone it’s aiming for is $1billion in ARR.
More options for learning with Google Workspace for Education
After renaming G Suite to Google Workspace, the Alphabet-owned company has announced that G Suite for Education is now Google Workspace for Education. Along with that, it also announced the availability of over 50 new features for users.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Matillion raises $100million to help enterprises accelerate cloud data integration
Integrating data into workflows isn’t an easy task, but that’s what Matillion promises for enterprises. Its ETL platform (extract, transform, load) reduces the time required for sorting and organizing data, and putting it into the applications for further analysis or creating visualizations. Its $100million funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Replit raises $20million for collaborative browser-based coding
Browser-based IDE (integrated development environment) Replit has received $20million funding as part of its Series A. Interestingly, the round was closed in early 2020, but was announced this week. The company also mentioned that the amount was used for R&D, hiring, and launching new features.
Proptech startup Knock secures $20million to grow SaaS platform for property managers
Knock provides CRM tools to help property managers offer virtual tours and communicate with renters via text, email, or social media. Knock manages over a 1.5million apartments across the US and Canada. To expand its hiring efforts, it has raised $20million led by Fifth Wall Ventures.
Zomentum raises $13million to scale its IT sales acceleration platform
Zomentum helps IT partners with their entire sales process to help them close their deals faster. The three-year old startup has closed a $13million Series A round to grow its sales team and enhance the product.
Torii announces $10million Series A to automate SaaS management
With more companies adopting SaaS products, managing different services owned across different teams would be a nightmare. That’s where Torii comes in. It helps in discovering and managing different SaaS tools inside an organization. It has gotten a $10million Series A investment led by Wing Venture Capital.
Must reads
7 marketing channels to focus on in 2021
Where is Flashpoint’s new $200million SaaS fund looking to invest?
How Stripe built a sales organization to successfully sell to developers
Listen to
How MeetEdgar leads with educational and story-based marketing
MeetEdgar is a social media management software that’s catering to small businesses. In this podcast, its Outreach Lead, Megan McMullin shares how MeetEdgar is reaching out to the audience with education content, community-based ads, and more.
How to build and sell an audience-first business with Arvid Kahl
In this podcast, Arvid Kahl, a bootstrapped founder who sold his SaaS business Feedback Panda, talks about his journey, how they scaled up the niche product, and more. He also shares how he’s using building in public concept to write a book publicly.
Wunderlist & Pitch founder, Christian Reber on his personal relationship with risk, money, whether the sale to Microsoft was a mistake, what great product designs means today & why founders investing external capital is a distraction
Pitch’s founder and CEO Christian Reber shares why he’s building a collaborative presentation software. He talks about significant funding it has been able to raise, his experience of creating Wunderlist, and how he juggles his time between Pitch and Superlist.
Watch
How to create the optimal SaaS pricing page
In this video, Neil Patel from Ubersuggest talks about the pricing page – which is a make or break for most SaaS products. He shares what elements one should focus on, how it should look with the aim of maximizing the conversions.
