{"id":2208,"date":"2020-12-25T19:20:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T13:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/blog\/?p=2208"},"modified":"2021-06-18T17:24:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T11:54:49","slug":"saas-in-2020-a-look-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back","title":{"rendered":"SaaS in 2020: a look back at the year which accelerated its adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Much has been written about COVID-19 hurting economic growth, plunging businesses into losses, and the long road to recovery. Amidst all the gloom, some sectors have flourished and achieved astounding growth. The rise of e-commerce, healthcare, and online education hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. However, the role of the enabler, SaaS, hasn\u2019t been as widely discussed. In this article, we focus on the adoption of SaaS and how COVID helped it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/images.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-400x210.jpg 400w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-143x75.jpg 143w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-150x79.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-450x236.jpg 450w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-390x205.jpg 390w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-820x431.jpg 820w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat-1180x620.jpg 1180w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SaaS-in-2020-SaaSworthy-feat.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_17 counter-hierarchy counter-decimal ez-toc-grey\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class=\"ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1\"><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#What_made_accelerated_adoption_of_SaaS_possible_in_2020\" title=\"What made accelerated adoption of SaaS possible in 2020?\">What made accelerated adoption of SaaS possible in 2020?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#Which_SaaS_companies_have_benefited_the_most_in_2020\" title=\"Which SaaS companies have benefited the most in 2020?\">Which SaaS companies have benefited the most in 2020?<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#1_Remote_workplace_management\" title=\"1. Remote workplace management\">1. Remote workplace management<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#2_Supply_chain_management\" title=\"2. Supply chain management\">2. Supply chain management<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#3_Essential_Services_Education_and_healthcare\" title=\"3. Essential Services: Education and healthcare\">3. Essential Services: Education and healthcare<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#Major_highlights_of_SaaS_in_2020\" title=\"Major highlights of SaaS in 2020\">Major highlights of SaaS in 2020<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#2020_was_also_a_year_of_SaaS_acquisitions\" title=\"2020 was also a year of SaaS acquisitions\">2020 was also a year of SaaS acquisitions<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/saas-in-2020-a-look-back\/#What_do_the_developments_in_2020_point_at_for_the_SaaS_industry\" title=\"What do the developments in 2020 point at for the SaaS industry?\">What do the developments in 2020 point at for the SaaS industry?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"what-made-accelerated-adoption-of-saas-possible-in-2020\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_made_accelerated_adoption_of_SaaS_possible_in_2020\"><\/span>What made accelerated adoption of SaaS possible in 2020?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/druva-cloud-platform\" target=\"_blank\">Druva<\/a>, a Pune and California-based <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/data-management-software\" target=\"_blank\">cloud data protection<\/a> startup, experienced a 70 percent year-over-year increase in recurring revenue for its data center workload protection solution. It also registered a 50 percent growth in overall data under management, according to its CEO, Milind Borate. Given the lockdown restrictions, enterprises find it difficult to manage their data center without reaching it. Switching to services like Druva helps them focus on their core business. Druva takes care of capacity planning, hardware, and software management. It also saves up to 50 percent of their costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Restricted mobility and work from home have popularized the SaaS applications in other ways too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While remote workforce management and collaboration have made businesses realize the value of investing in SaaS, online education and healthcare have taken it to the end-users. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2020-11-17-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-grow-18-percent-in-2021\">Gartner report<\/a> states that SaaS is forecast to grow to $117.7billion in 2021, while the overall worldwide public cloud end-user spending to grow 18 percent in the same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, restricted mobility, business continuity, and better cost efficiency together have accelerated SaaS adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"which-saas-companies-have-benefited-the-most-in-2020\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Which_SaaS_companies_have_benefited_the_most_in_2020\"><\/span>Which SaaS companies have benefited the most in 2020?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With firms shifting to remote working, they are moving from on-premise licensed software to subscription-based SaaS models. SaaS companies that have been able to capitalize on this new demand have three things in common:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1) They support the seamless transformation to cloud<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2) They are cost-effective, without compromising on security<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3) They are agile to cater to changing workload by deploying and scaling a wide variety of apps<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These fall into three major categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"1-remote-workplace-management\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Remote_workplace_management\"><\/span>1. Remote workplace management<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/collaboration-software\" target=\"_blank\">Collaboration tools<\/a> like <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/slack\" target=\"_blank\">Slack<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/microsoft-teams\" target=\"_blank\">Teams<\/a>, and companies like <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/zoho-crm\" target=\"_blank\">Zoho<\/a> Corp. seem to have benefited the most. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/slack\" target=\"_blank\">Slack\u2019s<\/a> $28billion acquisition by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/salesforce\" target=\"_blank\">Salesforce<\/a>, in some way, is a testimony to this fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/images.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-400x209.jpg 400w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-143x75.jpg 143w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-390x204.jpg 390w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-820x429.jpg 820w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy-1180x618.jpg 1180w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Salesforce-acquires-Slack-SaaSworthy.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Zoho Corp, on the other hand, expects to realize a 25 percent growth over its 400,000 customers worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The adoption rate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/video-conferencing-software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video conferencing software<\/a> like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/zoom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zoom<\/a> skyrocketed through the COVID period. In Q3 its customer base with more than 10 employees grew <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/bethkindig\/2020\/12\/10\/q3-earnings-zoom-video-okta-snowflake-crowdstrike-and-elastic\/?sh=5ccae376b46f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">485\\% year-over-year<\/a>. Its quarterly revenue at $777 million is a 500\\% growth from FY2019 revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft Teams also registered a prolific growth over the last few months&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/microsoft-teams-now-at-more-than-115-million-daily-active-users\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from 44million daily active users mid-March to 115million<\/a> at the end of October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related read: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blogrise-of-video-conferencing-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The rise and rise of video conferencing apps<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"2-supply-chain-management\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Supply_chain_management\"><\/span>2. Supply chain management<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The other set of SaaS businesses that COVID favored are those supporting delivery businesses. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/route-planning-software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supply chain SaaS<\/a> companies have seen massive growth, as the pandemic increased pressure on the backend technology and operations of several ecommerce businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Logistics intelligence platform, ClickPost registered a 3x higher month-on-month growth compared to the last year. It helps ecommerce companies select the right courier partner, generate labels, and track shipments. Notably, COVID also helped turn it profitable faster with 10million shipments a month, which is 600 percent YoY growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"3-essential-services-education-and-healthcare\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Essential_Services_Education_and_healthcare\"><\/span>3. Essential Services: Education and healthcare<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One sector that has made a lot of noise and astronomical gains during the COVID months is online education. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2020\/04\/16\/2017102\/0\/en\/Global-Online-Education-Market-Worth-319-Billion-by-2025-North-America-Anticipated-to-Provide-the-Highest-Revenue-Generating-Opportunities.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">report<\/a>, the global online education market is projected to grow at 9.23 percent from 2020 to 2025 &#8211; increasing from $187billion in 2019 to $319billion in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Classplus, a technology platform for educators to reach out to students has reportedly grown 10x since the beginning of 2020. In his statement to a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.financialexpress.com\/industry\/sme\/saas-startups-see-force-multiplier-in-covid-as-software-adoption-jumps-among-digitally-naive-businesses\/2104589\/\" target=\"_blank\">financial daily<\/a>, Mukul Rastogi, its co-founder, said that the user base and transactions also grew six and four times, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/images.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Classplus-SaaSworthy.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Classplus-SaaSworthy.png 300w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Classplus-SaaSworthy-200x400.png 200w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Classplus-SaaSworthy-38x75.png 38w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the healthcare front, the highlight of the year has to be the launch of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. It aims at improving patient engagement, clinical and operational insights with better collaboration between health teams. It pieces together different parts of healthcare starting from video consultations to EHRs. In the process, it takes away a pie from Zoom, a popular application used for remote consultations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"major-highlights-of-saas-in-2020\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Major_highlights_of_SaaS_in_2020\"><\/span>Major highlights of SaaS in 2020<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrary to the slowdown experienced in other sectors, SaaS was abuzz with acquisitions, IPOs, and wild upswings of few stocks along with significant funding announcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a growing customer base, the valuations too increased. The time was ripe for realizing the value. Some went public, others got acquired. While the trend of SaaS companies going public continued from last year, 2020 saw some big names like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/asana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Asana<\/a>, JFrog, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/palantir-foundry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Palantir<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/snowflake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Snowflake<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/zoominfo-inboxai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ZoomInfo<\/a> being listed. In fact, Snowflake was the biggest tech IPO of the year with shares ending 111 percent higher on the first day of trade. Many other SaaS companies that IPOed this year saw their stock prices surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" src=\"https:\/\/images.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snowflake-IPO-SaaSworthy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snowflake-IPO-SaaSworthy.jpg 620w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snowflake-IPO-SaaSworthy-400x266.jpg 400w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snowflake-IPO-SaaSworthy-113x75.jpg 113w, https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snowflake-IPO-SaaSworthy-390x260.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The year also saw a lot of funding announcements with wild valuations for SaaS companies. Be it Notion and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/figma\" target=\"_blank\">Figma <\/a>which are being valued at $2billion, or leading RPA (Robotic Process Automation) company <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/uipath-rpa\" target=\"_blank\">UiPath<\/a>, which is a decacorn now. We saw a lot of new companies reaching the much-vaunted unicorn status as well, including the likes of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/zenoti\" target=\"_blank\">Zenoti<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related read:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blogsaas-companies-that-got-the-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SaaS companies that got the funding in 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"2020-was-also-a-year-of-saas-acquisitions\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2020_was_also_a_year_of_SaaS_acquisitions\"><\/span>2020 was also a year of SaaS acquisitions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Slack acquisition stole the limelight for multiple reasons, many other deals were closed as the world grappled with the lockdown. Here are a few notable ones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Dec 2020:<\/span> Vista Equity Partner\u2019s acquisition of Pluralsight for $3.5bn deserves special mention among others, as it marks EdTech\u2019s coming of age. COVID became the tipping point for the sector, which would have otherwise taken a few more years to mature and become more mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Nov 2020:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/gainsight-px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gainsight<\/a>, a customer success SaaS startup, is another company in which Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake, valuing the business at $1.1billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Oct 2020:<\/span> Another deal focused on better customer engagement was <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/twilio-flex\" target=\"_blank\">Twilio\u2019s<\/a> $3.2billion acquisition of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/segment\" target=\"_blank\">Segment<\/a>, a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/data-management-software\" target=\"_blank\">customer data platform<\/a>. Twilio, a leading cloud communication platform aims to tear down the siloes between data and communication, which prove detrimental to great customer relationships and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">July 2020:<\/span> Mindville got acquired by Atlassian for its asset tracking and configuration management capabilities. It will help Atlassian further strengthen IT service management capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Jun 2020:<\/span> ServiceNow, a digital workflow company, acquired Sweagle, a configuration data management company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">May 2020:<\/span> Zoom acquired Keybase for its end-to-end encryption expertise, which became necessary as the pandemic-rush exposed its vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>7. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Feb 2020:<\/span> <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/freshworks-360\" target=\"_blank\">Freshworks <\/a>acquired AnsweriQ, a chatbot software to improve its&nbsp;AI engine, Freddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related read: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.saasworthy.com\/blogtop-salesforce-acquisitions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Top 8 Salesforce acquisitions: a list of companies acquired by the SaaS pioneer over the years<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-do-the-developments-in-2020-point-at-for-the-saas-industry\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_do_the_developments_in_2020_point_at_for_the_SaaS_industry\"><\/span>What do the developments in 2020 point at for the SaaS industry?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>1) With opportunity so large, many players are popping up with workable solutions. While not-so-good ones will perish, the market will still be filled with fragmented standalone solutions. Such fragmented solutions, if anything, will compound the remote working challenge. Customers cannot buy and maintain a separate solution for each of the business functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2) As remote working becomes the norm, the need for a unified software to manage the entire workflow will be felt. Consolidation is inevitable. Slack\u2019s acquisition and launch of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare are steps in that direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3) The other major highlight of the year was the consumerization of SaaS. With people stuck at home, SaaS kept the world connected and running. Education, healthcare, and everyday life applications made a few SaaS platforms sticky with end-users. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/notion-so\">Notion<\/a> and Zoom are two names equally popular among consumers and corporates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4) India is becoming a heavyweight in the SaaS industry. While Zoho and Freshworks continued to be the storied companies of the last decade, we\u2019re seeing new-age companies such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/api-management-software\">API management software<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/postman\">Postman<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/automated-testing-software\">automated testing software<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/lambdatest\">LambdaTest<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5) We\u2019re also seeing the rise of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/list\/no-code-development-platforms-software\">no-code<\/a> and low-code software that makes it easy for anyone to create websites, apps, and more without having much coding knowledge. So, it\u2019s not a surprise that companies like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/airtable\">Airtable<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/product\/unqork\">Unqork<\/a> closing the funding round this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6) COVID-19 has catalyzed a transformation that would have otherwise taken a few more years. Consequently, the next wave of consumer-oriented SaaS products will emerge. More fragmentation and consolidation will follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which trend for SaaS in 2020 caught you by surprise? Let us know in the comment below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The year 2020 has accelerated the SaaS industry by years. 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