Earlier this week, the Redmond giant held its first-ever all-virtual conference, Microsoft Build 2020. The Windows maker made a slew of announcements, including launching a powerful supercomputer. It also announced a couple of things for the world of SaaS. All that and more in our weekly roundup of the world of SaaS.
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News of the week
Microsoft announces first vertical cloud offering: Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
The Redmond giant is among the leading players in the cloud space, and to cement its position further, it’s now announcing an industry-specific offering. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is aimed at healthcare and firstline workers, and comes with Azure as well as Microsoft 365. The rollout would start from Q4 2020, though it’s currently available as a public preview and six-month free trial.
Microsoft Teams gets new updates
The tech behemoth is adding customized templates to Microsoft Teams, which can be used while creating a new team. It’s also making it easier to integrate chatbots, custom apps and create automated workflows. For offering studio-like quality, Teams will get Network Device Interface (NDI) support and Skype TX interoperability, which will allow for higher-grade production while holding public or private conferences.
Google Meet passes 50 million downloads, boosted by coronavirus
Google Meet‘s explosive growth continues, as its Android app crosses 50million downloads. There’s no doubt that has spurred by the fact that it’s available for free, and is also integrated natively with Gmail. What’s notable however, is the fact that the app had 5million downloads in the beginning of March.
Shopify unveils Balance debit card, opens AI-powered fulfillment network to merchants
Shopify is growing exponentially as more businesses and moving to online sales, and it’s continuously introducing new features to make its platform more useful. After launching an app called Shop, it’s taken wraps off Shopify Balance, which offers small businesses a business account and debit card. Along with that, it has also announced Shop Pay installments for consumers, which is like Buy Now, Pay Later options.
Formstack announces back to work solutions to help businesses safely reopen
As businesses are trying to resume after the quarantine, Formstack is launching a suite of “back to work” solutions to help them do the same. Not much different from Salesforce’s Work.com, the suite includes, symptom check, satisfaction survey, mobile ordering and appointment setting so that businesses can reopen safely.
Notion removes limits in the personal tier
Popular note-taking software Notion has removed all restrictions with its free tier. What that means is unlike the previous limit of 1,000 blocks (text, image, etc. are counted as a block in Notion’s parlance), users would be able to use it for adding as many blocks as they want.
WooCommerce launches native WooCommerce Payments feature
E-commerce software provider WooCommerce is adding native support for payments. Dubbed WooCommerce Payments, it’s utilizing Stripe to allow merchants to get payments directly without needing to do any integration. Moreover, the fees for using this functionality is the same as the custom Stripe integration, and users would be able to see charges, refunds, etc. in WooCommerce itself.
The boom for collaboration software also helped Facebook’s Workplace to grow significantly. The company has announced that it now has 5million paying customers, up from 3million in October. Along with that, it has also released new features such as the ability to do video calls with up to 50 participants (Workplace Rooms), Work Groups and support for Facebook Portal.
SaaS companies that got funding this week
Contentsquare announces $190M Series D
UX company Contentsquare, which tells businesses how users are using their websites or apps, has received a massive funding of $190million. Led by BlackRock’s Private Equity Partners, the Series D funding will be utilized to improve AI-based and predictive analytics along with expanding to global markets.
BetterCloud scores $75M Series F as SaaS management needs grow
BetterCloud, company that provides the view to the IT team of the SaaS tools being used in an organization, has announced a $75million Series F funding. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, and the company is seeing an uptick in usage as companies are more conscious of their spends on Saas products.
Khatabook helps small businesses with accounting and bookkeeping along with offering the ability to accept payments online. It has raised $60million Series B that was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital. The money will help the company to hire more people and built more products.
Amplitude, cloud startup that tracks online user behaviors, is now valued at $1 billion
Analytics software Amplitude catapults to the unicorn club with its Series E funding of $50million. The round was led by GIC, and the company will be using the money to look for M&A opportunities.
GO1, an enterprise learning platform, picks up $40M from Microsoft, Salesforce and more
Most of the people are focusing on upskilling themselves during the coronavirus crisis. And hence, we are seeing a rise of software that enable the same. GO1, a company which allows the companies to provide training to their employees, is no different. To fuel its growth, it has garnered $40million Series C funding.
Command E announces $4.3M for new “Command Center” for Hundreds of SaaS products
With people focused on improving their productivity levels, searching data through various software is a time-consuming task. Command E‘s desktop app makes it easier by letting users search through SaaS software such as Slack, Salesforce, Trello, and Hubspot among several others. The startup has raised $4.3million seed funding to accelerate its growth.
Check out
Leading sales teams through crisis
These aren’t normal times, and hence the sales process during the situation can’t be the same either. Close has compiled the best suggestions to navigate the crisis for the sales team in the form of a free Ebook.
Must reads
How to get started with product-led startup metrics
How Salesforce built a SaaS empire
5 tips for better remote one-on-ones
Listen to
Geckoboard: failing a dozen times before finding product market fit – with Paul Joyce
Listen to the inspiring story of Paul Joyce, founder of Geckoboard, who failed several times with various ideas, before starting Geckoboard. The startup helps companies in building and displaying real-time dashboards to focus on important metrics and has an ARR of more than $5million.
Building the house you want to live in with Steli Efti of Close
Stelli Efti, the co-founder of Close, a popular CRM tool for sales, shares his vision of the company, and why he wants to “build a house you want to live in” instead of going too big. He also shares his experience with building Close for so many years and how the company is dealing with the ongoing pandemic.
Chris Savage of Wistia
Video marketing software company Wistia has been in the business for 14 years, and has seen a lot of ups and downs. It also garnered attention when it did stock buyback by taking a debt of $17million in 2017. In this podcast, the founder and CEO Chris Savage shares his journey, talks about life after the buyback, and more.
Related watch: How an offer to sell Wistia inspired us to take on $17million in debt
Unscripted sessions with Tanishq Juneja, CEO of Pepipost
Pepipost started in the email marketing software category in 2015, in the space that’s highly competitive. In this podcast, its CEO Tanishq Juneja shares how the company stood out from its rivals by focusing on the email open rates and what does the future hold for Pepipost.
Watch
Stack Overflow ramps up SaaS model as it builds relationships with Microsoft and developers
Stack Overflow is the number one destination for developers to get answers to teething issues, and now the company is also shifting towards a SaaS model. In this video, CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar shares about various partnerships for its Teams platform, including Microsoft.
