Looking at the news cycle, it’s evident that the past week was a busy one for the SaaS industry. From companies planning to go public, to reports of acquisitions, and of course, significant fundraises – we have it all. So, without further ado, let’s begin the latest edition of the SaaS weekly roundup.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Robotic automation company UiPath files to go public — revenue grew 81% last year, losses pared
UiPath – ranking among the top SaaS companies to look out for in 2021 – has just filed for going public. As per its filing, the robotic process automation company had revenue of $607.6million in the fiscal year ending Jan 31st. It’ll be listing in NYSE under the ticker symbol PATH.
Thoma Bravo SPAC agrees to take IronSource public
PE firm Thoma Bravo is planning to take the software company ironSource public via a SPAC. The Tel Aviv-based ironSource offers APIs to enable monetization opportunities for app developers. The business would be valued at $11.1billion, and Thoma Bravo’s founder and managing partner, Orlando Bravo, would be joining the board of the ironSource.
Microsoft is in exclusive talks to acquire Discord
The Redmond giant is becoming a major player in the gaming space. As per reports, it’ll be acquiring messaging platform Discord, which is being used by gamers as well as other communities, for connecting with each other via voice, text, and video. The deal is pegged at $10billion – which is slightly higher than Discord’s valuation of $7billion at its last funding round in December.
Exclusive: Box explores sale amid pressure from Starboard – sources
Cloud services firm Box is reportedly in the market to look for acquirers. Reuters suggests that the company is taking this step amidst pressure from hedge fund Starboard, for its share price hasn’t increased much from the price it debuted at NYSE in January 2016.
Adobe posts record Q1 revenue with double-digit growth in core clouds
The Photoshop maker has announced its quarterly results, beating the market’s expectations. Adobe announced double-digit growth across its Creative, Document, and Experience clouds and reached an overall revenue of $3.91billion, growing 26 percent y-o-y. For the fiscal year 2021, the company expects revenue of $15.45billion.
Independent cloud provider DigitalOcean drops in Wall Street debut
Amidst all the hullabaloo around the valuations of SaaS companies and their impressive debut on the stock market, DigitalOcean’s listing didn’t turn out as expected. Its stock traded at $41.50 per share – 12 percent lower than the offer price of $47.
Khatabook acquires SaaS startup Biz Analyst in deal valued at $10million
India’s Khatabook has announced the acquisition of Biz Analyst for $10million. Biz Analyst provides solutions to SMEs for automating their daily business operations, and will help Khatabook offer value-added services to the users of its accounting software.
Hopin acquires Streamable and Jamm, doubles down on video technology
Virtual event software Hopin is in hypergrowth mode. Earlier this year, it acquired StreamYard, and also saw its valuation reaching $5.65billion. Now, it has acquired two more companies for improving its video technology for hosting events. These companies are Streamable, a video hosting provider, and Jamm, a video technology company.
Amazon hires former executive Adam Selipsky to run AWS
As AWS head Andy Jassy transitions to lead Amazon as a CEO, the retail giant has announced Adam Selipsky will be the CEO of its AWS business. Selipsky left AWS in 2016 to become CEO of Tableau, which was sold to Salesforce in 2019.
WhatsApp for work: Slack is turning into a full-on messaging app
Slack, which was acquired by Salesforce towards the end of 2020, has announced a new feature dubbed Slack Connect. As the name indicates, it allows Slack users to direct message any other Slack user, even if they aren’t part of your organization. But soon after the rollout of this feature, users found out that it could be misused for trolling and abuses. Slack immediately responded and removed the ability to customize the message while inviting a user to Slack Connect DMs.
Slack’s Stewart Butterfield went on Clubhouse this week, where he announced that the collaboration software would be adding Clubhouse-like (pun intended) audio capabilities soon.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
ServiceTitan, software provider for tradespeople, reaches $8.3billion valuation
ServiceTitan isn’t a traditional SaaS company, but it does offer field service management software that helps trade professionals in the home and commercial services. It has received significant funding of $500million as part of the Series F round. Led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital Global Equities, the company is now valued at $8.3billion.
Orca Security raises $210million Series C at a unicorn valuation
Israel has become a startup hub, and yet another startup from the country has joined the unicorn club. Cybersecurity firm Orca Security has nabbed a $210million Series C funding at a $1.2billion valuation. The round was led by Alphabet’s CapitalG venture arm, and it’s worth noting, that Orca Security has raised Series B round just last year in December.
Cloud security co Wiz raises $130million at $1.7billion valuation
Another Israeli cloud security startup has become a unicorn with $130million in funding. Wiz is now valued at $1.7billion, and its latest round comes just four months after closing a $100million round.
This electronic notary startup just raised $130million after a year of 600 percent growth
Notarize, an e-notary startup, has gotten $130million funding amidst hypergrowth during the pandemic. The Series D round imputes a valuation of $760million and was led by Canapi Ventures.
Jeff Bezos-backed accounting start-up hits $1.2billion valuation after new funding round
Accounting software Pilot has got a $100million funding round led by Jeff Bezos’ venture firm Bezos Expeditions. Valued at $1.2billion, Pilot has been tripling its revenue since its inception in 2017.
Aiven raises $100million to manage cloud data infrastructure for open source technologies
Finnish company Aiven offers managed open source technologies for public clouds. It has announced a $100million Series C round at an $800million valuation to expand to more markets and introducing new products.
Customer data platform ActionIQ extends its latest funding round to $100million
ActionIQ helps companies leverage customer data to offer personalized experiences. It has announced the Series C extension to $100million (including the $32million funding announced in Jan 2020).
Tiger Global leads Lattice funding round at $1billion valuation
HR software Lattice is used for performance management and is the newest unicorn on the block with $60million funding. The round was led by Tiger Global Management, and it’s worth noting that the company’s valuation has more than doubled from $450million last year.
Must reads
The e-signature war is going beyond the dotted line
Why Indian B2B SaaS startups are now looking homeward for growth
5 SaaS renewal best practices (that actually work!) for retaining customers & improving renewals
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