If you are wondering whether India is becoming a leading country for the SaaS economy, then the past week’s stories put it to the rest. Whether it’s funding or staying in the news, the last 7 days witnessed some notable Indian companies. On the other hand, the stock prices continue to tumble for major companies in the space. All that and more in the latest edition of the SaaS weekly roundup.
News of the week
Unity and IronSource’s $4.4B merger is now complete
While it’s difficult to fathom what’s common between a game engine (Unity) and an ad-tech company (IronSource), their proposed merger is now complete. Together, the combined entity will provide a turnkey platform for building and monetizing games.
Atlassian plummets more than 20 percent on weak earnings report and disappointing forecast
The parent company of Jira and Trello saw its shares fall 22 percent after it announced lower-than-expected quarterly earnings. In the quarter ending September 30th, its revenues were $807.4million. For the second fiscal, it’s expecting revenue between $835million to $855million – lower than analysts’ expectations of $879.2million.
Twilio shares plunge 34 percent on light guidance
Cloud communications software company Twilio witnessed an even sharper decline after announcing its quarterly results. It achieved revenue of $983million, which was slightly higher than the expected $972.2million, and yet, its stock price fell by 34 percent.
Related read: Atlassian and Twilio show the downside of SaaS stocks
Freshworks’ latest legal tangle raises red flags over growth claims
While Freshworks is among the biggest SaaS success stories out of India, it continues to be involved in legal issues. The latest is that it’s misled investors about its NDR (Net Dollar Retention Rate) in its IPO prospectus. Worth noting that its IPO was a blockbuster, but now the share price has dropped significantly.
SaaS companies that got the funding this week
Contract lifecycle management vendor Icertis secures $150M in debt to stave off rivals
Icertis has closed a mega funding round of $150million. It last raised $115million in 2019, and now it has gotten $75million and a $75million revolving credit facility. While it’s being categorized as contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, its CEO Sameer Bodas highlights that it has several additional functionalities.
Amagi raises over $100 Mn in new round led by General Atlantic
Amagi turned unicorn earlier this year, and it has now raised $82million from PE firm General Atlantic. In addition to that, General Atlantic has purchased additional shares from existing investors worth $27million. With this fund infusion, the PE firm will have an 8 percent stake in the company.
Former Yext CEO launches Roam to provide a virtual HQ for distributed teams
With remote work taking over the world, there are several startups trying to make it more effective. Roam, billing itself as a “cloud HQ” has just come out of stealth with $30million Series A funding. Led by IVP, the startup is valued at $95million. It’ll be utilizing the funding towards GTM efforts in the US and other markets.
Must reads
Profiling the Indian SaaS landscape – a US $1trillion opportunity for businesses
32 SaaS KPIs every company should track
How embedded finance can increase the profitability of SaaS startups
Listen to
How to fundraise in late 2022 with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin
In this podcast, Founders Fund Partner and former Brex CRO Sam Blond talks about how the pandemic has democratized startups. He also shares his learnings from Brex and what startups should be focusing on in the current VC winter.
Attest: growing a SaaS from zero to first million ARR in 7.5 months – with Jeremy King
In this inspiring podcast, Attest’s founder and CEO Jeremy King shares how he hacked growth and VC funding. He discusses how his research platform helps companies engage directly with over a 125million consumers worldwide to do market research in a better manner.
Watch
Two things you MUST do in your SAAS demo
SaaS demos are a great way to convince prospective clients to buy your product. In this video, the host shares the exact process of how to structure your demo along with an example and some tips to improve it.
