This Week in SaaS

Weekly insights on great companies operating within the SaaS space.

If you’re not familiar with SaaS, go check out the beginning portion of my prior article — This Week in SaaS. Weekly insights on great companies… | by Ian Bambrick | Jan, 2021 | Medium

Really this series should be called this week in growth, but I’ll assume readers are privy to the fact this blog is geared towards late stage venture investments! With that being said, let’s jump right into it.

• Microsoft acquires Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion. Nuance Communications is a speech technology company that delivers solutions that understand, analyze, and respond to people.
• Phenom People receives $100 million in funding from B Capital Group, OMERS Growth Equity, Golden Arc Capital, and Dragoneer Investment Group. Phenom is a global HR technology company with the purpose to help people find the right job and discover their true potential.
• Sendbird receives $100 million in funding from Steadfast Financial LP, World Innovation Lab (WiL), Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Vision Fund, Meritech Capital Partners, ICONIQ Capital, and Emergence. Sendbird developed a messaging-as-a-service API that provides chat, voice, and video messaging for mobile apps and websites.
• Blue Dot receives $32 million in funding from Lutetia Technology Partners, Ibex Investors, Viola Group, Target Global, and La Maison Partners. Blue Dot is a provider of an AI-driven and cloud-based tax compliance platform.
• Fyllo receives $30 million in funding from Sol Global Investments, JW Asset Management, Salveo Capital, K2, George Steinbrenner, Entourage Effect Capital, and Arcadian Capital. Fyllo offers compliance cloud enterprise-grade software and database services for the cannabis industry.
• Alyce receives $30 million in funding from General Catalyst, Victress Capital, Morningside Venture Partners, Manifest Investment Partners, Golden Ventures, and Boston Seed Capital. Alyce is an AI-powered Personal Experience Platform that empowers marketers and sellers to build bonds with their prospects & customers at scale.

HEALTHTECH

• DiaSorin acquires Luminex for $1.8 billion. Luminex Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells biological testing technologies and products with applications throughout the life sciences and diagnostics industries.
• KKR acquires Therapy Brands for $1.2 billion. Therapy Brands is a provider of mental and behavioral health software.
• Hologic acquires Mobidiag for $795 million. Mobidiag is a Molecular diagnostic company developing and commercializing solutions for the detection of infectious diseases.
• Canopy Growth acquires Supreme Cannabis for $435 million. Supreme Cannabis is a publicly-traded company that is engaged in the production and sale of medical and recreational cannabis.
• PharmEasy receives $323 million in funding from TPG Growth, Prosus Ventures, Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads, and Think Investments. PharmEasy is a health tech startup offering services such as teleconsultation, medicine deliveries, and diagnostic test sample collection.
• Invitae acquires Genosity for $200 million. Genosity is a life science biotechnology company focused on providing tools and services for the clinical research applications of genomics.
• Tend receives $125 million in funding from Zigg Capital, Redpoint, Juxtapose, GV, and Addition. Tend is a technology-driven dental startup that provides hassle-free, personalized, and straightforward dental services.
• Ventus Therapeutics receives $100 million in funding from RA Capital Management, BVF Partners L.P., Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Alexandria Venture Investments, Versant Ventures, and GV. Ventus Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule medicines that target the innate immune system.
• Icosavax receives $100 million in funding from RA Capital Management, Viking Global Investors, Surveyor Capital, Sanofi Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners USA, Perceptive Advisors, Open Philanthropy Project, NanoDimension, and Janus Henderson Investors. Icosavax is focused on developing safe and effective vaccines against infectious diseases that address important unmet medical needs.
• Memic Innovative Surgery receives $96 million in funding from Peregrine Ventures, Ceros Financial Services, OurCrowd, and Accelmed. Memic Innovative Surgery develops robotic surgical solutions designed to enable otherwise infeasible surgical procedures.
• Nucleix receives $55 million in funding from RA Capital Management, BlackRock, Lilly Asia Ventures, LYFE Capital, MILFAM, OrbiMed, Aurum Ventures, DSC Investment, OCI Bio Investments, and Zohar Zisapel. Nucleix develops, manufactures, and markets non-invasive molecular cancer diagnostic tests.
• Pendulum Therapeutics receives $54 million in funding from Meritech Capital Partners, True Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures. Pendulum Therapeutics is a biotechnology company improving health through products targeting the microbiome.

FINTECH

• Plaid receives $425 million in funding from Altimeter Capital, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, Silver Lake, Ribbit Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Plaid provides companies with the tools and access needed for the development of a digitally-enabled financial system.
• Auxmoney receives $298 million in debt funding from Citigroup and Chenavari Investment Managers. Auxmoney is an online peer-to-peer loan marketplace created to offer a means of exchange between people.
• CRED receives $212.3 million in funding from Falcon Edge Capital, Coatue, Tiger Global Management, Sofina, RTP Global, Insight Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DST Global, and Dragoneer Investment Group. CRED is a members-only credit card management and bill payments platform that rewards users every time they pay their credit card bills.
• OneStream Software receives $200 million in funding from D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, and Investment Group of Santa Barbara. OneStream Software is a financial planning and analysis software developer.
• Ramp receives $115 million in funding from Stripe, D1 Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs, Founders Fund, Coatue Management, Thrive Capital, Redpoint Ventures, BoxGroup, Neo, and Contrary Capital. Ramp is a technology company that develops corporate cards designed to save businesses money.
• Groww receives $83 million in funding from Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, and Propel Venture Partners. Groww is an investment platform that offers a new way of investing money with stockbroking and direct mutual funds.
• TipRanks receives $77 million in funding from PRYTEK and More Investment House. TipRanks is a financial accountability platform that ranks financial advice to assess its accuracy.
• TrueLayer receives $70 million in funding from Addition, Zack Kanter (Stedi), Visionaries Club, Temasek Holdings, Surojit Chatterjee, Northzone, Mouro Capital, David Avgi, Daniel Graf, Connect Ventures and Anthemis Group. TrueLayer is a fintech platform utilized to build financial apps that connect to bank data, verify accounts, and access transactions.