You’d be mistaken if you think that the SaaS companies were only growing last year amidst the lockdown. In fact, they continue to announce breakout earnings quarter after quarter. So this week’s roundup focuses on the quarterly earnings announced by the SaaS companies along with the other happenings and some notable funding announcements. So without any further ado, let’s begin.
Table of Contents
Earnings corner
Salesforce raises full-year earnings guidance following its acquisition of Slack
Just last week, Salesforce announced the first steps towards integrating Slack to its software. And now, the leading CRM software maker has announced that it’s expecting its revenue for the entire fiscal year of 2022 to be between $26.2billion and $26.3billion. In the previous quarter, which ended on July 31st, its revenue grew by 23 percent vs the same period last year.
Workday Q2 earnings, sales top expectations
Workday’s sales grew by 18.7 percent, helping it reach second-quarter revenue of $1.26billion. Out of this, subscription revenue was $1.11billion, which is 19.5 percent higher compared to the last year.
VMware subscription, SaaS revenue soars 23percent to $776million
Among the companies that have been able to make a successful pivot to the software-as-a-service model, Dell-owned VMware will certainly rank quite high. Its SaaS revenue for the second quarter was $776million, which is up 23 percent year-on-year. In fact, its ARR for SaaS offerings was $3.15billion, an increased of 26 percent y-o-y.
Box reports higher revenue growth as it faces investor showdown
Cloud storage company Box reported that its second quarter’s revenue is $214.5million, which rose by 12 percent from a year ago. Amidst the activist investor’s demands for changing the strategy and management team, this is positive news. Box also announced higher revenue guidance for the fiscal year – between $856million and $860million.
Snowflake stock spikes as sales come in strong. Management is more upbeat.
Trading with the SNOW symbol, Snowflake is among the best IPOs of 2020. For the quarter ending on July 31st, it reported revenue of $272.2million, which saw a whopping increase of 104 percent from the same period last year. The database management software company also announced that it now has 4,990 customers.
News of the week
Digital Identity startup ForgeRock files IPO as losses shrink
The story of SaaS companies going public doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Identity and access management software ForgeRock has filed for an IPO, where it may seek a valuation of between $3billion to $4billion. It has raised $273million till now, and was last valued at $767million.
Trello adds new free features and introduces new tier for small businesses
Atlassian-owned project management software Trello has announced a slew of new features. The interesting thing is that it’s offering these capabilities free of charge as it aims to reach 100million users. It also introduced a new tier for small businesses.
Former Amazon executive who was once Jeff Bezos’ ‘shadow’ joins online events start-up Hopin
It seems virtual event software Hopin always finds a way to stay in the news. And while it’s not a funding announcement or acquisition this time, it certainly shows its ambition. It has hired Wei Gao, a former Amazon executive, who was also a “shadow advisor” to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as its COO.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Ramp raises $300million at a $3.9billion valuation, makes its first acquisition
Credit card and expense management software provider Ramp has closed a $300million Series C round. Valuing it at $3.9billion, the company also announced its first acquisition of Buyer, which offers negotiation-as-a-service to help clients save on big-ticket purchases.
Sequoia-Backed Grafana Labs reaches $3billion valuation
Open source analytics and visualization platform Grafana Labs has announced a $220million funding. Co-led by Sequoia Capital and Coatue Management, the startup is valued at $3billion.
Khatabook gets $100million funding, announces ESOP buyback
Accounting software Khatabook has raised $100million in its Series C funding. Led by Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures, the company is now valued at around $600million. Like a lot of Indian startups these days, it has also announced ESOP buybacks.
‘No-code’ process automation platform, Leapwork, fires up with $62million Series B
No code is going places… and hence, it’s not a surprise to see Leapwork bringing it to process automation space. It makes automation testing really easy. The startup has raised $62million in Series B funding, and will be using the investment for hiring and improving the product.
Shelf.io closes huge $52.5million Series B after posting 4x ARR growth in the last year
Knowledgebase software provider Shelf.io quadrupled its growth within a year. It also announced the fundraise of $52.5million led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. The Series B round will help the startup to scale up its hiring efforts.
Pakistan’s B2B marketplace and digital ledger platform Bazaar raises $30million
Speaking of Khatabook, Pakistan’s Bazaar takes that to the next level by combining it with a shipping service. Its B2B marketplace is available in Pakistan’s major cities – Karachi and Lahore, while its account management app is available across the country.
Emerging from stealth, Knoetic is a startup that’s offering a software analytics platform for HR heads. The $18million Series A investment was led by Accel. The startup helps HR in improving employee retention, compensation, and hiring, along with helping build board decks and present quick insights.
Must Reads
Salesforce unleashes Slack and rocks the cloud
How to hire the right VP of sales for your startup
Listen to
Celebrating 10 years of Intercom
Live chat software Intercom has just celebrated a 10-year anniversary. Listen to its founders sharing the foundation story of how it started from a Dublin coffee shop. The podcast also talks to early employees of Intercom to talk about its initial years.
How Weekdone launched a spinoff product from a successful segmentation experiment
Weekdone, an OKR management software, launched a tool for managing teams. This insight emerged from a segmentation experiment that its Head of Marketing, Kason Dydnski ran. In this podcast, he shares how did they go about audience segmentation, how they created different email funnels, and how they found the product-market fit for the new tool.
Moving into new markets: how to be a big fish in a bigger pond, with Krish Subramanian (CEO, Chargebee) & Carrie Osman (CEO & Founder, Cruxy & Company)
Chargebee’s CEO Krish Subramanian discusses with Carrie Osman about subscription billing software’s international expansion. He shares the mistakes that one can make while moving to newer markets, and how if it’s done right, it can boost the revenue.
Watch
Starting a B2B SaaS company
Watch Dwolla’s Founder and Chairman Ben Milne and Parabol’s Co-founder and CEO Jordan Husney share their journey into the world of SaaS. They also talk about what led them to start their SaaS companies, and discuss whether post-secondary education is important for entrepreneurship, among other things.
