SaaS, short for Software as a Service, is a software distribution model in which a provider hosts both the company's software and its data and makes them available via the Internet. This implies that the software used by the company is not present in the company, but that it is the provider who takes care of the hosting in the cloud, as well as its updates and maintenance.
In this post we will look at three types of funding rounds that have taken place in the sector. The first would be the largest round that has been done this year by Stripethen the most recent, by Sharework and, finally, the round conducted by the top company according to the CB Rank, Aircall.
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Stripe is a commercial, developer-focused SaaS company that helps small and large businesses accept online and mobile payments.
On 16 April 2020, Stripe in its late stage, conducted a series G round of funding, raising $600 million, the largest round of funding raised to date.
On the other hand, Sharework was the last company to execute a round.
The round closed on Tuesday the 9th and raised €3.1 million. Sharework is a SaaS platform that connects CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) with each other to help companies identify and maximise synergies with their business partners. Being still a very young company, this round was made at the stage of seed.
Another financing round of note is the Aircall financing round.
Aircall is a French company based in Paris whose solution is based on cloud-based call centre software that integrates with CRM, productivity and helpdesk tools. This SaaS company aims to replace outdated telephone systems with an integrated voice platform, bringing business telecommunications to the cloud. Currently, its service is used by 5,000 companies worldwide, 3,000 of which are based in Europe, such as Natwest, Spareroom, Mindful Chef, Glovo y Soldo.
Aircall's Series C funding round, which took place on 27 May this year, was, like Stripe's, on the late stage of the company. The round was led by DTPCwith the participation of new investors Swisscom y Adam Streetas well as existing ones Balderton Capital, Draper Esprit, eFounders y NextWorld and in it, Aircall managed to raise $65 million.