Welcome to the SaaS weekly roundup, your weekly newsletter on all things software-as-a-service. This week was quite busy in terms of acquisitions, new launches, and some mega funding announcements too. Here’s everything that you need to know.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Thoma Bravo agrees $6.9billion deal for cyber security group SailPoint
PE firm Thoma Bravo is making big moves in the SaaS world, and the latest is no different. It’s acquiring cybersecurity company SailPoint for $6.9billion. The deal price is at an 83 percent premium compared to the stock price at the beginning of 2022.
Software maker Datto to be taken private by Kaseya for $6.2billion
In yet another deal in the cybersecurity space, Kaseya has taken Datto private in an all-cash deal worth $6.2billion. Worth noting that Datto went public on NYSE in October 2020 at $27 per share, and received $35.50 per share.
KKR agrees to buy Thoma-backed cybersecurity company Barracuda
PE companies are also dealing among themselves… as KKR has agreed to purchase Barracuda Networks from Thoma Bravo. The transaction imputes a valuation of $3.8billion to the cybersecurity company.
Related read: Interview with Murali Urs, Country Manager, India at Barracuda Networks
OwnBackup announces the launch of OwnBackup Secure to help companies address SaaS data security gaps
SaaS data protection platform OwnBackup has introduced OwnBackup Secure, a SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solution. It’s aimed at helping companies find data vulnerabilities and take proactive measures to protect mission-critical data.
Atlassian blames script maintenance for week-long cloud outage
If you are a user of services like Jira, Confluence, Opsgenie Cloud, etc., then you may have faced some outage issues. The parent company behind these services – Atlassian – has shared that the outage occurred due to a maintenance script that accidentally disabled these cloud services. The company also mentioned that the outage impacted only 400 of its customers out of a total of 226,000 customers.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Observe.ai raises $125million, adding Zoom as an investor, to supercharge the contact center market
Aiming to leverage AI to improve how agents interact with customers, Observe.ai has closed a $125million investment. What’s even more interesting is that the Series C round is led by Softbank Vision Fund, and videoconferencing software Zoom is also joining the cap table.
Filevine raises $108million for tools that streamline legal workflows
We’ve been seeing a surge of funding activity in the legal tech space. Filevine provides a software that offers legal workflows like document management, billing and timekeeping, e-signatures, and lead management. It has nabbed $108million in Series D round led by StepStone Group.
Obsidian Security to detect and fix major SaaS security risks with $90million infusion
With the rise in SaaS applications, their security has also become a matter of concern. Obsidian Security offers a comprehensive view of the SaaS world for any organization. It has raised a $90million Series C investment led by Menlo Ventures.
DoControl raises $30million for no-code security tools for cloud app log-ins
There seems to be a constant theme this week – security. DoControl has received $30million in funding to help secure log-ins for cloud apps. The Series B investment was led by Insight Partners, and will be utilized towards building a powerful API so that developers can build integrations with other apps.
Grain has raised a $16million Series A
Video meeting workspace Grain has secured $16million Series A funding. The round was led by Tiger Global. Along with the fundraising, the startup also announced the acquisition of PingPong, a video messaging platform.
Must reads
How to drive business growth by fostering your community
Companies are using AI to monitor your mood during sales calls. Zoom might be next.
Listen to
Finding the org structure to drive customer success, with Puneet Kataria (CustomerSuccessBox)
In this episode, CustomerSuccessBox’ Puneet Kataria shares his journey into the world of SaaS and what led him to start a company in the customer success space. He also shares his lessons of getting first paying customers and how to build the right org structure for driving customer success.
The secrets to going big, going multi-product and going public with Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates, Part 1 and Part 2
Product analytics company Amplitude recently went public. And if you want to learn how the company reached $100million ARR and beyond, and how it found the product-market fit, then these two episodes (we’ve only embedded part 1 above) with its CEO Spenser Skates are a must-listen.
Watch
Finding product market fit for SaaS startups
Product market fit has become more important than ever for SaaS startups. In this video, host TK Kader explains three principles that help one find the product-market fit. These include asking people to buy, defining your target audience, and continuously monitoring your progress.
