The past week was a momentous occasion for the Indian SaaS ecosystem. Freshworks became the first SaaS company to be listed on Nasdaq, marking the coming of age of Indian SaaS. It raised over a billion dollars at a market cap of $10billion (the current valuation is even higher). The CEO Girish Mathrubootham said that he feels like an Indian athlete who won a gold medal.
The IPO also created 500 millionaires, thanks to Freshworks’ ESOP policy. VC firm Accel also hit a goldmine thanks to its 26 percent stake in Freshworks, which is valued at over $3billion.
Of course, Freshworks IPO isn’t the only significant development in the space this year. Several SaaS startups out of India have raised huge investments, becoming unicorns in the process. Be it Postman, BrowserStack – which are among India’s most valuable SaaS startups – or the newly-formed unicorn MindTickle, which received funding from SoftBank.
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News of the week
Slack introduces Slack Clips, more Salesforce integrations
Not so long ago Slack had introduced Huddles, which let users quickly join an audio call and discuss things. In the bid to make asynchronous remote work easier, it has announced Clips. It allows users to create and share audio, video, or screen recordings.
Slack also announced new integrations with Salesforce offerings, including MuleSoft, Quip, and more.
Salesforce backs Indian payments startup Razorpay
Popularly known as India’s answer to Stripe, Razorpay has gotten investment from Salesforce Ventures. While the amount hasn’t been disclosed, the strategic investment will help the company “further strengthen its presence in the business banking space“.
Alternative financing startup Pipe snaps up Stripe and HubSpot execs, expands to UK
Pipe – a startup that helps subscription-based companies get money without diluting their equity – has gotten some high-profile executives along with expanding to the UK market. Its executive team now comprises former Stripe EIC Sid Orlando and HubSpot’s Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey.
Adobe’s Q3 earnings: four takeaways on SMBs, Creative Cloud, customer experiences
Photoshop maker is continuing to see growth with its subscription-first strategy. It reported revenue of $3.94billion, up 22 percent from the same period last year. In the next quarter, it’s projecting $4.07billion revenue.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
PandaDoc, the e-document startup, now valued at $1billion as it closes a big Series C
Another week, another unicorn – PandaDoc, an e-document platform, has nabbed a significant Series C funding, which values it at $1billion. While the exact amount hasn’t been divulged, the investment was led by OMERS Growth Equity and G Squared.
Propel raises $20million funding for its product lifecycle management platform
Propel – the startup behind Product 36- a platform that offers unified quality management combining product lifecycle management and commercialization build on top of Salesforce.com – has raised $20million Series C funding. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures, and it has raised $48million to date.
Software supply chain platform Cloudsmith raises $15million Series A led by Tiger Global
SaaS-based supply chain platform for software, Cloudsmith has received $15million in Series A funding. Led by Tiger Global, the startup will be using the amount to hire 60 employees while expanding its sales and engineering teams in the US.
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