If you take a gander at the funding action in the SaaS space, you would wonder where’s the VC winter. But this also reflects the strong fundamentals for SaaS businesses. Along with some significant funding announcements, the past week also saw some announcements from popular SaaS companies among others. So without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Shopify launches Collabs, a new way for creators to earn revenue on the platform
E-commerce software provider Shopify is connecting creators with merchants on its platform with Shopify Collabs. This will enable creators to partner with brands they link and curate a list of their products to share with their audience on social media using Linkpop, link in bio offering from Shopify itself.
Cloudera launches its all-in-one SaaS data lakehouse
Hadoop-centric big data company Cloudera has launched data lakehouse as a service. Dubbed CDP One, the company highlights that it’ll help enterprises move workloads to the cloud without having to manage a complex infrastructure setup.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
HR startup HiBob’s valuation surges 50% to $2.4billion on a $150million raise
The pandemic has given a huge boost to HR tech startups. So it isn’t a surprise to see HiBob announcing a $150million Series D funding that values it at $2.45billion. The round was led by General Atlantic.
Founderpath bags $145million to fund bootstrapped SaaS ventures
In the past couple of years, we are seeing a slew of alternative investment options for SaaS startups. Founderpath is no different as it provides capital to SaaS founders. It has received $145million in debt and equity financing.
SoftBank, Sequoia China back this ERP startup enabling China’s online exporters
Dianxiaomi, roughly translated as “shop assistant”, has received $110million in Series D investment led by Softbank Vision Fund II and Sequoia Capital China. The startup helps Chinese businesses to sell abroad.
Clevertap raises $105million Series D investment
After the first wave of SaaS companies like Zoho and Freshworks, we are seeing a deluge of startups in the space that are putting India on the global map. Clevertap, a marketing automation software has raised $105million as part of its Series D funding. Led by CPDQ, the company highlighted how it’s using data to help its customers hyper-personalize their messaging for the end users.
E-commerce SaaS start-up Graas raises $40million in first close of Series A
Graas, standing for Growth-as-a-service, has closed a $40million Series A round. Led by Galaxy, the startup also announced the acquisition of Shoptimize and Southeast Asia’s marketplace specialist SELLinALL. The amount will also be used to increase its team size to 400 by the end of the year.
Otter.ai challenger Airgram raises $10million to transcribe and time your video calls
Airgram transcribes video calls on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams and convert them into sharable and editable text. The Otter.ai competitor has nabbed $10million in Series A funding as it expands to the US market after amassing 500k users in Japan.
Must reads
How SaaS transforms software development
Spearheading PLG at Stack Overflow: how product-led and sales-led growth fell into alignment
Listen to
SaaS Secret Sauce: How the CEO — CRO Dynamic Drives Growth with Marketo Former EVP Sales Bill Binch
Bill Binch, currently an operating partner at Battery Ventures, shares his experience of leading sales for Marketo and its playbook that made it successful. He also shares about the CEO and CRO relationship and how founders can think of new ideas.
Lessons on Entrepreneurship and Adaptation with Avi Meir, Co-Founder & CEO of Travelperk
TravelPerk’s co-founder and CEO discusses his journey of starting a business at 31, and how he led a hyper-growth company. He also shares how Covid impacted the business and how they overcame it.
Watch
Get users on your SaaS using these 5 traction channels
For a SaaS business, marketing becomes one of the trickiest things. In this video, the host talks about different channels to acquire customers. These 5 channels include social and display ads, email marketing, SEO, and more.
