Just a couple of weeks back, we had mentioned a lot of companies from India joining the unicorn club. This week, it seems the Indian SaaS unicorns have added more cash to their war chest to dominate their categories. Of course, a lot more happened in the past week. So, without further ado, let’s begin.
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News of the week
UiPath climbs 23% in stock market debut after one of largest US software IPOs in history
Robotic Process Automation company UiPath has been one of the most anticipated SaaS IPOs in 2021, and it has listed itself successfully too. The company’s shares rose to 23% from the original listing price of $56, valuing it at ~$36billion.
Squarespace files for a direct listing on the NYSE
Website builder software Squarespace has filed to go public. The company will be trading with the symbol SQSP and has opted for a direct listing rather than the traditional route of issuing new shares. It had reported $621.1million revenue in 2020, up 28 percent y-o-y.
Chat app Discord ends takeover talks with Microsoft
It seems that the acquisition talks between Discord and Microsoft didn’t go anywhere. Reports suggest that the messaging software Discord rejected a $12billion bid and is focusing on going public.
Want to build the next big thing on the Zoom platform? We want to invest in you!
Video conferencing software Zoom has launched a $100million fund to back companies that are create useful Zoom experiences. The company mentioned that it’ll be making an initial investment of $25k to $2.5million in the portfolio companies.
IBM beats across the board, posts revenue growth after four quarters of declines
The Big Blue has announced its quarterly results while posting revenue growth after four quarters, along with beating the market expectations. It had earnings of $1.77 per share and revenue of $17.73billion. IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software division (that includes Red Hat) announced $5.44billion in revenue.
Google is continue to update its Meet platform. These include the ability to resize, reposition or hiding your video feed, along with putting your video feed on the bottom right, so you can eye-level when you’re looking into the web camera. There are also improvements in presenting experience, new additions in the bottom bar, and so on.
Figma introduces a whiteboard tool called FigJam
UX design software Figma is aiming to compete with the likes of Miro as it has launched a collaborative whiteboarding tool. Dubbed FigJam, it allows designers to come together and collaborate on designs and more. The tool’s functionality includes sticky notes, emojis, shapes, pre-built lines, and connectors, among other things. It’s also introducing the voice chat feature for all its products.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Marketing automation platform ActiveCampaign has raised Series C funding of $240million. Valued at over $3billion, the round was led by Tiger Global. The company also highlighted that it has over 145,000 customers, up from 90,000 customers just 16 months ago.
India’s Razorpay raises funds at $3 billion valuation ahead of Southeast Asia launch
Payment services company Razorpay became a unicorn in October last year, and now it has trebled its valuation. It has closed a $160million Series E round co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Singapore’s GIC.
Related read: Harshil Mathur on Razorpay’s secret to 3x growth, acquisition plans & the SaaS foray
Backup firm Druva protects data in the cloud with $147M in new funding
Cloud backup firm Druva joined the unicorn club in June 2019. In less than two years, it has doubled its valuation as it has received $147million funding taking its valuation to over $2billion.
Chargebee: $125M in Series G, $1.4billion valuation, and the coming of age of a category
Joining the coveted list of unicorns from India is billing and invoicing software Chargebee, which has nabbed a $125million Series G funding. Valuing the company at $1.4billion, the round was led by Sapphire Ventures. The xx startup mentions that the amount will be used for R&D and scaling its presence globally.
Payroll startup Deel raises funds at $1.25billion valuation
Deel is a payroll software startup that helps companies hire from anywhere around the world without worrying about the local hiring laws. It has now gotten $125million funding at an impressive valuation of $1.25billion. The funding was led by YC Continuity Fund, along with A16z and Spark Capital.
Software product planning platform Productboard raises $72million
Productboard has announced a $72million fundraise led by Tiger Global. The San Francisco-based company stated that the Series C round will help in expanding its team and customer base while focusing on R&D.
AppOmni raises $40million for tools to secure enterprise SaaS apps
With more and more enterprises adopting SaaS applications, security has become quite important. Enter AppOmni, which has a platform to monitor SaaS apps for their activity, and provides guidance when it detects things may go wrong. It has raised $40million Series B round led by Scale Venture Partners.
Must reads
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How Fintech startup Quolum is helping companies control their SaaS expenses
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Listen to
New Relic CMO Seema Kumar unpacks the myths of developer marketing and other strategies for hyper scale
Seema Kumar, New Relic’s CMO talks about her rich and diverse experience that helped her land the job at New Relic. She also shares how developer marketing is different than the conventional forms of marketing, among other things.
Lauren Schuman (Mailchimp & Mural): growth needs marketing
Growth is often confused with, but in this episode, Lauren Schuman explains how it’s connected to different teams and helps in the marketing function as well. She shares her learnings from leading the growth team at Mailchimp and talks about her current role at Mural too.
Lessons from zero to IPO with Henry Schuck, ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo, a sales intelligence company, IPOed last year amidst the pandemic. In this podcast, its CEO Henry Schuk shares his journey into the world of SaaS, evolution of ZoomInfo (and the fact that it started as DiscoverOrg), leading the company during the COVID crisis, and more.
Watch
B2B SaaS: a path to hypergrowth: [Panel Discussion] trends in B2B SaaS over the next decade
SaaS has evolved at a breakneck pace. So, if you want to understand how it’ll change over the next decade, then this panel discussion is a must-watch. Speakers such as Accelprise’ Olivia O’Sullivan, Point Nine Capital’s Ricardo Sequerra, and WebEngage’s Rahul Monga discuss the major trends that could shape the industry.
