Fynn Glover’s Post

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, and we've dug deep into the successes of 20 publicly listed vSaaS companies to share valuable insights for startups. Key takeaways: - Aim for 3-4 funding rounds before IPO. - Median revenue at IPO: $138M, typically takes about 10 years. - Set realistic IPO valuation goals. - Profitability & diverse revenue streams drive value. - Optimize ARR per FTE. Thanks to Gabby Cazeau & Jon Diakanwa for spearheading this research. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gKyazpFi If you’re building something new in vsaas, reach out!

We’re profiling Sapphire Ventures for is in this week’s #InvestorSpotlight. 🔍Focus Areas:  Sapphire, a global software venture capital firm managing over $7 billion in AUM as of 2022, has been collaborating with forward-thinking teams and venture funds for over two decades to drive the growth of significant companies. Through its investment arms — Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire Sport — the firm is dedicated to scaling companies and venture funds, positioning them as leaders in their respective categories. 🌐Headquarters: With offices in Austin, London, New York, Menlo Park, and San Francisco, Sapphire maintains a global presence. 👥Founding Visionaries: According to Crunchbase, Sapphire was co-founded by Andreas Weiskam, David Hartwig, Doug Higgins, Jai Das, and Nino Marakovic in 2010. Andreas holds the role of co-founder and a partner at Sapphire Ventures, where he assumes board director or observer positions at Contentful, CurrencyCloud, Matillion, Retail Solutions, and Wandera. Dave, also a co-founder, serves as a partner at Sapphire Ventures, boasting a venture capital career from 1997 when he commenced in inside sales. His current board memberships (director or observer) include Kaltura, LeanData, Phoenix Labs, and Reonomy. Doug, another co-founder of Sapphire Ventures, takes charge as the lead investor for Sapphire Sport. His portfolio management encompasses investments in Convercent, Jibe, Localytics, Phoenix Labs, Return Path, Tonal, and Spring Mobile Solutions. Jai Das, president, partner, and co-founder of Sapphire Ventures, spearheads strategic initiatives within the firm. Meanwhile, Nino Marakovic serves as CEO and partner at Sapphire Ventures. 📈Portfolio Companies: Since its establishment, Sapphire has backed over 170 companies worldwide, resulting in 30+ IPOs, and 40+ M&A transactions across its 140+ portfolio company investments that span 10 countries. Some of these include 23andMe, 6sense, Alteryx, Box, DocuSign, involve.ai,  monday.com, and more. 📰Recent Deals (per Crunchbase):  - Defense Unicorns secured a Series A funding of $35,000,000 from Ansa Capital and Sapphire Ventures. - BioCatch secured $70,000,000 in a Secondary Market funding round led by Sapphire Ventures. - Weights & Biases secured $50,000,000 in funding for an unspecified series from Bloomberg Beta and eight other investors. 💰Fund News:  In July 2023, Sapphire allocated around $2.4 billion to AI-driven enterprise technology startups, with a particular emphasis on those specializing in generative AI. This investment highlights Sapphire's track record of supporting and expanding enterprise AI startups and will target various segments of the evolving AI technology stack, encompassing foundational models, enabling technologies, middleware, and next-generation AI applications. Learn more about this week’s feature here: www.sapphireventures.com. #privatemarket #secondaries #venturecapital #privatecredit #privateequity

PointFive, a leading cloud cost optimization platform, has secured an additional $20 million in Series A funding, raising the company's total capital raised to $36 million within just 18 months since its inception. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from all existing investors, including Index Ventures, Entrée Capital, Sheva VC, and Vesey Ventures. The recent funding will support PointFive's expansion into multi-cloud environments and enhance its mission to improve engineering efficiency through its DeepWaste Detection Engine. PointFive, a leading cloud cost optimization platform, specializes in enhancing engineering efficiency through its innovative DeepWaste™ Detection technology. With a focus on discovering overlooked savings opportunities, contextual insights, and actionable recommendations, PointFive empowers enterprises to transform cloud cost optimization from a reactive process into a proactive strategy, making cost efficiency a core principle of sound engineering. Founded in 2022, the company has secured $36 million in funding, led by Salesforce Ventures, and has expanded rapidly across the U.S., supporting multi-cloud environments and offering unique solutions to address the challenges of cloud cost management. Factacy.ai Congratulates and wishes them well. Alon Arvatz #innovation #management #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #futurism #startups

Sweden’s NOQX secures first round of funding from prominent investors to expand global reach in goal management SaaS NOQX, a Stockholm-based SaaS company founded in May 2023, has secured its first round of funding from an impressive group of investors, including Phillip Chambers, Giles Whiting, Maria Hedengren, Niklas de Besche, Aref Abedi, and Louise Markgren. The funding amount has not been disclosed. NOQX specializes in goal management and OKRs, aiming to make goal management enjoyable and successful for employees. With the funding, NOQX plans to continue improving and developing its platform to sell it internationally, with a long-term goal of establishing itself as a global SaaS company, particularly focusing on North America. https://lnkd.in/g44Z2NgK #funding #nordicmade #sweden #SaaS #startups #trending

Five years ago, Whatfix raised its Series B round. Since then, they’ve grown 25x in ARR and become the #1 player in their category. In celebration of this, here are my top 5 takeaways from this for founders on their $10M to $100M journey! ➡ Single product to multi-product Zero-to-one is a founder-class problem. As you grow, it’s hard to sustain with one product, and the hustle to build new products slows down. Vara’s shift from a product & engineering role to leading innovation Whatfix Labs increased new product velocity ➡ Industry & horizontal solutions While Whatfix initially focused on one horizontal product, they recognized the need and opportunity for industry-specific and function-specific solutions. With a differentiated product, tailored marketing and dedicated GTM, Whatfix expanded its offerings to create a new growth lever. ➡ Platformization As companies expand their products, common engineering services often get duplicated and the need for enterprise-oriented capabilities arise. Whatfix recognized the need to separate platform services and capabilities from the rest of the applications, thus streamlining engineering. ➡ Evolving GTM It is not true that once you find PMF and the (initial) GTM motion, you just need to add fuel to the fire. Many SaaS companies stumble in the $10M-$25M range due to GTM challenges. Whatfix experimented with a number of GTM elements as they evolved in their journey. ➡ Manage P&L, not just ARR Sales efficiency can decline as ACVs rise. Whatfix’s exceptional focus on their burn ratio i.e. managing cash efficiency while investing in building GTM capacity ahead of growth shows both their judicious and bold approach towards building the company. Looking ahead, Whatfix has a unique chance to redefine its category, especially with the recent acquisition of a competitor and the ability of reimagining the category with AI. While building a global leader is tough, my bias is that Whatfix will become a generational software company from India. It has been a privilege to see the Whatfix journey up close and personal over the last 10 years. Have learnt immensely from Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu, and also seen them evolve as founders during this period. Excited to partner with Warburg Pincus LLC! Full version of my thoughts here: https://bit.ly/3BqUnpQ Stellaris Venture Partners Tejeshwi Sharma Shweta Bhatia Aditya Gurunath Systla

🚨 SaaS startup Atlan’s valuation hits $750 mn after $105-mn round 1️⃣ Atlan, a startup offering data collaboration software, has collected $105 million in a round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, and US-based venture investor Meritech Capital. The deal was finalised at a valuation of $750 million. 2️⃣ Existing backers Salesforce Ventures and Peak XV Partners (Sequoia India) also participated in the round, and Atlan’s lifetime funding haul exceeds $206 million now. 3️⃣ Roughly two years ago, the company closed a $50-million round at a valuation of $450 million. The latest transaction of $105 million is one of the most significant up-rounds in the Indian SaaS space. An up-round refers to a fundraise at an increased valuation. 4️⃣ Prukalpa ⚡ Sankar and Varun Banka founded Atlan in 2018. Its platform serves as a collaborative workspace for data teams, facilitating data governance across tools such as Snowflake, dbt Labs, Redshift, Looker, Sisense and Tableau. Article link in comments

We teamed up with Dealroom.co to create a Startup Efficiency Index, starting first by analyzing our own data. We are all about efficiency at Flashpoint Venture Capital so we were curious how various factors influence revenues at startups. What we saw was that top teams increased revenue/employees in the last 2 years irregardless of funding. These teams receive higher valuations as markets value efficient growth (as a proxy for future profitability) now more than ever. We want to keep expanding this research but we need your input for that, so as a special deal you get 6 months of free Dealroom access if you help us building this index. More details here:  https://lnkd.in/dSu7Y-ce

🚀 SaaS Startup Funding Falls in 2024 🚀 Software as a service (SaaS) companies have raised $4.7 billion in seed- through growth-stage financing so far this year. However, this falls significantly short of last year’s $17.4 billion total. The cooling interest in SaaS investments comes amidst a challenging period for publicly traded SaaS and enterprise software companies. Despite the decline, some notable rounds are still closing, including Wiz’s $1 billion Series E and Glean’s $200 million Series D. While funding hasn’t evaporated, megadeals are less frequent than a few years ago. 😊👍 #SaaS #StartupFunding #TechNews #VC #VentureCapital #InvestmentTrends

Merge as a "Free" Distribution Channel for Startups? Merge isn’t just a data integration tool—it’s also a valuable distribution point for emerging companies. • Visibility for Startups: Smaller companies often approach Merge, eager to be featured in its ecosystem to gain exposure and credibility alongside established names. • Free Distribution: For startups trying to compete with giants like HubSpot or Salesforce, partnering with Merge offers a way to integrate seamlessly with larger systems, without needing direct access to those platforms' roadmaps. • Building an Ecosystem: Merge enables these companies to connect with more clients, creating a network effect that benefits both the startups and Merge’s users. Merge is more than integrations—it's a launchpad for growth!

ServiceTitan recently filed their S-1, and they have plans to IPO before the end of the year. ServiceTitan is like the "command center" for field service businesses, combining tools like scheduling, customer management, and invoicing into one powerful platform. Think Salesforce for HVAC businesses. ➡️ ServiceTitan was formed in 2012. ➡️ Their first reported fundraising round wasn’t until 2015 (less than 10 years ago). ➡️ In 2024 alone, they’ve done $685M in revenue, with 77% margins. 📈 ➡️ Its Compound Annual Growth Rate is a whopping 111.96%. 🤯 A $5K check in 2015 would be worth $7,045,455 today. At Hustle Fund, we invest in “hilariously early” startups, and we like to ask ourselves “What happens if things go right?” Well…ServiceTitan's growth is a great example of that. 💸 (although we did not invest into ServiceTitan 😭)