Contrary to the thinking that the ongoing pandemic would have slowed down the investor interest, they’re doubling down on companies that are seeing an uptick in usage due to the new normal. The past week saw some sizeable fund-raising activities, and of course, a lot of interesting updates with regards to the popular SaaS offerings. So, let’s get going with the latest edition of the SaaS weekly roundup.
Table of Contents
News of the week
An integrated workspace in G Suite to help you make the most of your time
The internet giant is aiming to make Gmail a centerpiece for G Suite users. It’ll now allow users to use Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides directly from Gmail itself. Billing the feature as “better home for work”, the company is aiming to make it more efficient for users to manage their work without switching between different services. Google is also partnering with third-party companies like DocuSign, Salesforce, and Trello to offer deeper integrations.
BigCommerce files to go public
Just a few weeks after the report that Shopify competitor BigCommerce will be filing for an IPO, the company has done that. In Q1 2020, its revenue grew to $33.2million, a 30 percent gain from Q1 2019. We shall be getting more details about its financials once it files an S-1/A.
Google Cloud’s new BigQuery Omni will let developers query data in GCP, AWS and Azure
Google has announced BigQuery Omni in the Cloud Next ’20 event to allow developers to use the BigQuery engine to analyze data sitting across different cloud platforms. Along with Google Cloud, developers would be able to query the data on AWS and Azure too.
Zoom introduces all-in-one home communications appliance for $599
On the heels of announcing its hardware as a service initiative, Video conferencing software Zoom has partnered with DTEN to launched DTEN ME, a 27-inch tablet with three wide-angle cameras and eight microphones. The device will make it easier for people to do Zoom calls and offers a simplistic interface.
Atlassian brings a table view to Trello
Atlassian has announced several updates to Confluence and Trello to support “the next phase of remote work”. Trello now offers a table view, which provides all the information spread across Trello boards in a tabular manner. Confluence features include bulk content management feature to archive, label or export multiple pages. There’s also Smart Links that offers a preview of the link.
Salesforce rolls out new Marketing Cloud features, Datorama integration with Tableau
Leading SaaS company Salesforce has announced a ton of updates to Marketing Cloud, including AI features in interaction studio and Datorama integration with Tableau. With this, Interaction Studio will now offer better personalization and A/B/n testing methodologies. Salesforce Pardot is the marketing automation software, while the new integration with Tableau will help users to get improved analytics.
Samsung’s AppStack aims to bring bundle, cloud, app, hardware discounts to SMBs
Samsung may not be the brand that comes to the mind when it comes to the B2B business, but the company is steadily bringing things to cater to this market. It has now announced AppStack to offer bundles and discounts to small businesses with less than 100 employees and have been affected by COVID-19. The software in the bundle includes G Suite, SignNow, ClickUp, Zoom, Pipedrive, and more.
Acquisitions of the week
HPE buys SD-WAN player Silver Peak for $925 million
HP Enterprises has announced the acquisition of Silver Peak, a company that makes SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) products. The acquisition is worth $925million, and the company will be combined with HPE’s Aruba business unit.
Uber acquires Routematch as it drives deeper into public transit in hunt for SaaS revenue
Ridesharing giant Uber is continuing to move towards bulking up its SaaS revenue. It has acquired Routematch, a company that provides software to transit agencies. This news comes just after the last month when Uber partnered with Marin County in the San Francisco Bay area.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
UiPath raises $225 million to automate repetitive back-office tasks
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) companies are getting a lot of attention, and perhaps one of the biggest players in the space UiPath has announced a significant fundraise. The company has gotten $225million Series E funding which was led by Alkeon Capital.
Seattle’s newest billion-dollar startup: Qumulo reaches unicorn status with $125M round
Storage startup Qumulo has garnered $125million funding that has catapulted it to the unicorn status. The Series E round was led BlackRock, and the company says that it has experienced 100 percent growth year-on-year amidst the pandemic. The company will be using the money to expand its capabilities and hire more.
Identity-as-a-service provider Auth0 raises $120 million at a $1.92 billion valuation
Auth0, one of the leading companies in the identity and access space, has received $120million funding as part of the Series F round which was led by Salesforce Ventures. The company claims that it has prevented over 1.3million malicious logins till date and handles between 80million and 1billion transactions every day.
Pricefx raises $65M Series C for its cloud-based pricing software
Cloud-based pricing software Pricefx has raised $65million from funds advised by Apax Digital. The company will be deploying the money to expand further and cement its leadership in the industry.
Lattice, a people management platform, picks up $45M at a $400M valuation
Performance management system Lattice is seeing an increased demand amidst the remote work era, and hence it has bagged $45million to accelerate its growth. The Series D funding was led by Tiger Global.
Customer intelligence platform Zeotap has got $42million Series C funding led by Germany-based Neue Capital, European Investment Bank, and Copraion. The company will be using the money to double down in its universal marketing identity solution, dubbed ID+.
Must reads
How Calendly harnesses PLG and virality for growth
How to create a buyer persona (includes free persona template)
OpenStack, the open-source cloud at 10
Listen to
The product thinking that built Slack & Twitter w/ April Underwood
While Slack and Twitter are two distinct offerings catering to the distinct set of audience, April Underwood played a critical role in their product development. In this podcast, she shares how she went about growing them in the early days, her framework for hiring excellent product managers, and more.
Hull: a SaaS startup that went from failure to successful pivot – with Romain Dardour
Customer data platform Hull is among the leading companies in this space. However, it wasn’t so easy as the founder Romain Dardour shares in the podcast. He talks about how he wanted to make it easier to build online communities in 2012, but it was only in 2016, they pivoted to a product that was collecting and segmenting data from multiple sources at one place.
How Help Scout is building evergreen marketing assets with super compelling content
Help Scout‘s VP of Marketing, Adam Goyette discusses how it was to join the help desk software company amidst the pandemic, how they changed their brand and messaging activities, and marketing efficiency, among others. He also talks about why building a strong brand and content strategy is a long-term play, and video marketing.
Watch
Deep-dive into the future of cloud & data security
Druva is among the storied SaaS startup from India. In this video, YourStory‘s Shradha Sharma talks to Jaspreet Singh, Founder and CEO about the data security company’s journey over the years and what the future looks like.
