Although we’re seeing a bit of a slowdown in funding announcements, it’s evident that SaaS companies are continuing to improve their offerings or stay in the news as they’re in acquisition mode. Well, that’s what the past week’s news seems to be telling us. So without further ado, let’s check the things that you shouldn’t miss in the world of software as a service.
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News of the week
Cloudflare launches an eSIM to secure mobile devices
Leading web performance and security company Cloudflare is ensuring our phones are more secure. It has announced Zero Trust SIM and Zero Trust for Mobile Operators. The SIM is launched in the US at the moment, it’ll be available as an eSIM for both Android and iOS devices. Worth noting that the SIM will be launched in the next few months, and the other offering will be in partnership with mobile carriers. In addition, the company also introduced the IoT Platform to secure connected devices.
Calendly, the $3B+ scheduling startup, acquires Prelude to drive into the recruitment sector
Calendly is strengthening its appointment scheduling capabilities as it’s made its first acquisition. It has acquired Prelude, which is focused on automating scheduling for recruitment. The price of the buyout wasn’t announced, but Prelude has raised $2.4million till now and claims to have hundreds of customers.
CloudBees acquires ReleaseIQ DevOps platform
Software delivery platform CloudBees has purchased ReleaseIQ to expand its DevSecOps capabilities. While the terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed, the acquisition will help CloudBees to empower developers by offering them a choice, and continuously delivering innovation.
TripActions reportedly files to go public at $12 billion valuation
After battling and coming out stronger after the slowdown in the travel industry because of COVID, travel management software TripActions is reported to have filed its IPO. Expected to go public in the second quarter of 2023, the startup is aiming for a valuation of $12billion.
SoftBank sells entire stake in troubled cloud firm Sinch
Sinch – hailed as a European competitor to Twilio – saw its share price collapse by 90 percent this year. And now, Softbank has sold its entire stake in the cloud communication platform. However, since 5 percent of Softbank’s stake was acquired by Sinch’s co-founder and interim CEO as well as a firm connected to its chairman, the shares surged by 24 percent, which is quite positive.
DocuSign to cut workforce by 9 percent as part of restructuring plan
Electronic signature software DocuSign is going through a slew of changes. It recently announced its next CEO, and now, it’s laying off 9 percent of its workforce.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Cloud storage startup Wasabi raises $250million to reach unicorn status
Unlike the cloud storage players like Google and Microsoft, Wasabi stands out by offering hot storage. And to accelerate its growth, it has now raised a significant investment of $250million as part of its Series D round. The amount was equal parts equity and debt, and values the company at $1.1billion.
Document onboarding startup Flatfile nabs $50million from investors, including Workday
Flatfile has raised $50million as part of its Series B funding. Led by Tiger Global, the startup helps with data exchange and data of new customers while they’re being onboarded.
Low-code software Tray.io has nabbed $40million in funding with a new investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board joining its existing set of investors. The startup grew 115 percent y-o-y in terms of revenue and is aiming to expand further with this fund infusion.
If you are also looking for an alternative to Figma after its Adobe acquisition, then you should check out Penpot. What separates it is the fact that it’s open source. To capitalize on its sudden growth, the parent company behind Penpot has raised $8million led by Decibel. The platform was launched last year and has users from over 10,000 companies.
Must reads
Adobe outlines Figma feature ideas, commits to keeping free tier
We’re thinking about SaaS the wrong way
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Ryan Law – VP of Content at Animalz – GPT3 and how it’s a revolution for content marketing
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