The week gone by is packed with news, a huge acquisition and multiple fundraises. So without wasting any more time, let’s get right into it.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Microsoft-acquired GitHub has made a significant change – core features are now free for teams. Till now, this was a paid option, and hence options like private repositories weren’t available. The price of the paid plan has also been slashed to $4/month from $9/month.
Slack CEO details ‘most productive’ week in company history, hits back at Microsoft
The Redmond giant has been soaring high on the increased popularity of Microsoft Teams. But Slack’s Stewart Butterfield suggests that the DAUs of 44million isn’t a big deal. That’s because, these users are actually subscribers to Microsoft 365, which is being used by over 200million people, so the adoption rate is ~22percent. He also shared that it has grown tremendously amidst coronavirus pandemic.
Verizon will buy video conferencing company BlueJeans
Video conferencing apps are seeing explosive growth, and it seems Verizon wants a piece of the action. The telecom company is acquiring popular enterprise-focused video conferencing software, BlueJeans for $400million. With over 12,000 customers including the likes of Facebook and IBM, Verizon’s CEO Hans Vestberg believes that BlueJeans could be tied into its 5G offering.
LogMeIn virtualizes face-to-face tech support with Rescue Live Lens
LogMeIn is adding a new feature to its Rescue Lens product, wherein users can receive face-to-face support virtually without the need of downloading any app. The feature will allow customer support executives to help the user with their issues in a better manner.
Related read: Interview with Rahul Sharma, Managing Director at LogMeIn India
Update on Zoom
It seems that Zoom is becoming a regular feature on our SaaS weekly roundups. More companies are warning against using the software, including Standard Chartered. Even India’s MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) has issued an advisory against using Zoom in the government.
Zoom on its end, is continuing to make its platform more secure. It has recently improved password protection for meetings, webinars, and cloud recordings.
Google’s fast-growing Meet video tool getting Zoom-like layout, Gmail link
Search titan Google is adding new capabilities to its video conferencing software, Meet. It’ll now make it easier for users to initiate video calls through Gmail itself. Later this month, Meet will also offer a Zoom-like Grid layout for up to 16 participants.
Investment quotient
SaaS-based source-to-pay startup Aavenir raises $2M in seed from Accel
The source-to-pay process refers to finding and having a contract with the supplier of goods and paying them for the same. San Francisco and Ahmedabad, India-based Aavenir does the same and has raised seed funding to expand to global markets and accelerate its sales and marketing operations.
FarEye raises $25 million in Series D round
Logistics SaaS startup FarEye has raised Series D funding as it aims to expand to Europe and the US. The round was led by Microsoft’s VC arm M12 with participation from Honeywell Ventures and Eight Road Ventures. The company claims to handle more than 10million transactions every month on its platform.
Just after raising $70million in January this year, Attentive has added $40million funding the Series C funding as it continues to grow amid the pandemic. The company would be investing its resources to help its customers manage the crisis by providing free access to its offerings.
Slite raises $11 million to simplify document sharing and workplace collaboration
With the workplace collaboration tools in the buzz, Slite has received $11million in funding led by Spark Capital. Built from the group up for teams, the company believes that it offers an easier workflow for people to collaborate with each other as compared to other such products.
Lucidchart raises $52M Series D, passes $100M ARR
As the diagramming software Lucidchart’s parent company Lucid Software crosses $100million in ARR, it has raised Series D funding. The round was led by ICONIQ
Must reads
What no one ever tells you about selling SaaS
What’s the best way to handle SaaS sales compensation?
ConvertKit: Nathan Barry’s bumpy road to $1.7m MRR
Will a freemium pricing model destroy your SaaS company?
Listen to
How marketing teams can replace the leads lost from events in a COVID world with Carolyn Guss, VP Corporate Marketing @ PagerDuty
In this podcast, Pagerduty’s Carolyn Guss shares about how she’s filling the gap that has been created due to the events that have been canceled amidst COVID-19 to generate new leads. She also tells how she landed in PagerDuty while starting at telecom giant Orange.
How coronavirus is impacting revenue
In this podcast, Transistor.fm’s Justin Jackson talks with Baremetric’s Josh Pigford to discuss about the impact of the ongoing pandemic on SaaS companies. Josh also shares his ideas behind several side projects he’s involved in.
Communicating during crisis with Rand Fishkin of SparkToro
Rand Fishkin is best known for Moz, a website that’s the go-to resource for all things SEO. Two years back, he started his second venture dubbed SparkToro. In this podcast, he shares how he’s navigating through COVID-19 crisis and how he’s doing things differently this time.
Watch
LogiNext’s Dhruvil Sanghvi on tapping the SaaS opportunity in SMBs
In this live chat, LogiNext’s CEO talks about how the logistics startup is planning during the lockdown period. He shares that the supply chain is now more important than ever and small and medium businesses will now adopt digital offerings.
Value proposition examples for your SaaS business (10x Your Growth and Valuation)
In this video, Tawheed Kader mentions how companies can find their value proposition. He shares three simple tips: a one-sentence value proposition, building an initial customer profile, and result that you are driving for your customers.
