6 months into 2021, it’s seemingly becoming evident that SaaS is touching almost every corner of our lives. From companies that are continuing to grow rapidly to quite a few that are getting listed on stock markets — we’re seeing the industry proliferate in a frenetic space. The past week was no different, and here’s everything that you shouldn’t miss out on.
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News of the week
Slack Huddles: introducing new tools to help you work from anywhere
First came the stories, then short videos, and now it seems everyone is going after the Clubhouse style of audio interaction. Slack has announced Huddles, which lets users have audio-first conversations to quickly discuss things. That’s not all, the app is also offering an easy way to create and share voice notes, videos, and screen recordings. It has also announced the ability to schedule messages.
Related read: Slack’s new voice, video tools should fit nicely on Salesforce platform after deal closes
Israel’s ironSource trades in New York after $11 billion SPAC merger
Mobile adtech company ironSource merged with PE firm Thoma Bravo in a SPAC that values it at $11 billion. Trading under the symbol IS, the share prices were up 1 percent on the day it got listed.
SentinelOne closes up 21% in NYSE debut as highest-valued cybersecurity IPO ever
Cybersecurity company SentinelOne debuted on NYSE under the ticker symbol “S” with the 20% premium. It sold 35 million shares, giving it a market cap of $10 billion with each share priced at $42.50.
LegalZoom shares jump 35% in market debut; CEO sees further opportunity in online legal services
Another SaaS company that made its debut in the public market is LegalZoom. Its shares rose by 35.18 percent upon listing – at $37.85. It got a market capitalization of $700 million by selling 19.1 million shares.
HPE to acquire Zerto for $374million to boost GreenLake, storage
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced the acquisition of Zerto, a company that provides cloud backup protection for SaaS offerings such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Google Workspace. Priced at $374million, the acquisition will help the company bolster its Greenlake cloud data services.
Video conferencing software Zoom isn’t sitting idle as it’s seeing the world going back to its older ways of working. It has acquired Kites GmbH, a start-up working on real-time machine translation. The acquisition will help Zoom improve its multi-language translation capabilities.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Corporate e-learning authoring platform Articulate raises $1.5billion
With the rise in e-learning, it was only a matter of time before the software providing the ability to create such courses will get recognition. Articulate, a leading player in the space, has announced perhaps the biggest Series A round ever as it raised $1.5billion. Valuing the learning management software company at $3.75billion, its backers include General Atlantic, Blackstone, and Iconiq.
ServiceTitan acquires Aspire to move into landscaping, raises $200million at a $9.5billion valuation
ServiceTitan builds software for contractors to let them manage their work easily. It has nabbed $200million Series G funding at a valuation of $9.5billion led by Thoma Bravo. The company also announced the acquisition of Aspire Software, which is used by commercial landscapers.
Shogun raises $67.5million in Series C funding
Shogun helps e-commerce businesses build using software like BigCommerce, and then allowing them to design responsive front-end. It has gotten $67.5million Series C funding, led by Insight Partners.
Tapcart, a ‘Shopify for mobile apps,’ raises a $50 million Series B
Shopify democratized the ability to e-commerce stores, and now Tapcart aims to do the same for mobile commerce. The company already powers more than 1000 brands, and has closed a $50million Series B investment. It’s aiming to become a vertically integrated mobile commerce platform by launching features like marketing automation, among other things.
Codat raises $40million from Tiger for its SMB-focused API service
API provider Codat has raised $40million from Tiger Global. The startup offers an API that connects from a company’s internal software like QuickBooks and iZettle with external providers.
Quizizz raises $31.5 million from Tiger Global, Yahoo’s Yang
Quizzing startup Quizizz has received $31.5million Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management. Worth noting that the latest investment comes just three months after raising a $12.5million Series A round in March.
Must reads
How SaaS startup Dukaan used tech and customer feedback to go from zero to 3M merchants
Box CEO Aaron Levie: CIOs are driving significant digital transformation
Landing page strategy: the complete guide
Listen to
Twilio’s Jeff Lawson on what it takes to create a tribe, how to create anti-fragile organizations through decentralized decision-making and why values are nice but principles are better
We’ve shared a couple of podcasts covering Twilio before, but every podcast talking about the cloud communication software giant is full of insights. This Twenty Minute VC podcast is no different as Twilio’s founder and CEO Jeff Lawson talks about his journey, challenges, his leadership style, and more.
From developer to founder to CEO: engineering to enterprise with Elastic CEO Shay Banon
In this podcast, Elastic’s founder and CEO Shay Banon share how he transitioned from a developer to leading Elastic. He also talks about why they chose the open-source way.
Watch
How to act on your first day in a SaaS company – AppsFlyer
AppsFlyer, a mobile analytics software, has quickly grown to become a leader in the space. In this video, its director of People Operations, Jonah Kadish shares what they look for in team members on their first day.
