Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 15, 2023

I reviewed the roughly 560 US software acquisitions under $400m since January 1, 2020. ServiceNow tops the list with 5 acquisitions. Recruiter.com prefers small acquisitions: 4 purchases during the period, totalling less than $12m in value. Number of Acquisitions. To answer the question. Alphabet ingested 4 companies.

Acquisition 290

Acquisition Software Review Software Startup 290

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

” Fortunately, the always excellent KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) 2021 SaaS Survey – which covers over 350 private SaaS companies across various stages and categories – provides a very rich data set to work from. 2 drivers stood out as notable: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Churn.

SaaS 321

SaaS Technical Review Benchmarks Azure 321

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2025

Billion PostgreSQL Battle for AI Agent Supremacy Brief Overview : Two data giants are making strategic moves to dominate the AI agent infrastructure market through major PostgreSQL acquisitions. This acquisition builds on previous AI investments, including the 2023 purchase of Neeva, a generative AI search startup. Databricks: The $1.25

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VP of Engineering AI Search AI Data 192

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2023

Probably just say Yes pic.twitter.com/K483lKnyzd — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  (@jasonlk) April 21, 2021 So I wrote a version of this post years ago, about when to think about selling your startup, if you do get an attractive offer. Every Big Tech company has a budget for sub-$100m acquisitions. If so, say No If not? Vaguely.

Acquisition 361

Acquisition Venture Capital Scale Generative AI 361

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Under his product leadership, Procore has grown exponentially, went public in 2021, and recently crossed the coveted $1B ARR milestone. Founded 22 years ago by Tooey Courtemanche (who remains CEO), the company has scaled to 4,500 employees and went public in 2021.

Construction 254

Construction Scale SaaS Travel 254

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

How to Make an Acquired Second Act Work In 2021, BILL completed its acquisition of Divvy , a Leader in Spend Management for SMBs. acquisition. René wanted everything to fit together like a glove, but it was a big acquisition, with over 7,500 customers joining. One advantage at BILL is all the bills inside of BILL.

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SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 312

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

Referrals are Chime’s largest acquisition driver since 2022 , helping bring sales & marketing spend down to 26% of revenue in Q1 2025, from 42% in 2022. The 2021 fintech hype is mostly overpublic markets now reward fundamentals. But if it lands around $9 Billion, that’s less than 5x revenues. 5 Interesting Leanings: #1.

Outsourcing Services 202

Outsourcing Services Scale Banking Customer Lifetime Value 202

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

First IPO in 1999 First acquisition for $5.3 Billion in 2015 Second IPO in 2021, $10 Billion market cap Salesforce acquires them in 2025 for $8 Billion Man, it's a journey pic.twitter.com/Lmi9NPQbj6 — Jason SaaStr.Ai IPO private IPO acquisition is becoming a common path. Informatica acquired for $8 Billion!

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Acquisition Government AI Enterprise readiness 140

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2024

This time, on Mergers & Acquisitions. My biggest take-away: there are barely more than 50 acquisitions of $50,000,000 or more, at least disclosed one, in software of U.S.-based And that’s fairly constant for the past decade, outside of the 2021 bubble. based startups each year. But M&A isn’t up.

Acquisition 289

Acquisition Software Review Software Cloud 289

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2025

The last IPO of the 2020-2021 era was HashiCorp in December 2021. Billion acquisition of HashiCorp. About Dave McJannet: Dave McJannet is the CEO of HashiCorp, and led the company from early-stage to its successful IPO and $6B+ acquisition yb IBM. And it’s one of the first to be acquired! IBM just closed on its $6.4

Scale 183

Scale Systems Review Scaling Leadership 183

SaaStr

MARCH 10, 2025

Its ServiceNows largest acquisition ever. Moveworks raised $200m of its $315m in VC Capital in 2021 at a $2.1 Billion valuation Add in dilution since 2021, carve-outs on the deal, etc. And the reality is, the last round was raised at a very high valuation in 2021. A huge exit. And should you care? The answers are murky.

AI 183

AI Acquisition B2B SaaS 183

IT World

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

But one thing that stayed fairly constant was the steady flow of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) across the tech sector. Among a late flurry of big deals was the $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx by Advanced Micro Devices and Salesforce's $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack. billion acquisition of Slack.

Acquisition 128

Acquisition Technology Innovation Software 128

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2021

With one day left to go until SaaStr Scale 2021 on December 15th, we’re looking at an incredible speaker line-up this year. Airtable CMO Archana Agrawal will discuss how marketers can overcome these challenges and build marketing foundations for rapid customer acquisition and growth.

Scale 278

Scale Scaling Marketing Consulting 278

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

We’ll share the answers in today’s brand new episode of CRO Confidential, where our host Sam Blond, partner at Founders Fund, sits down with Toast CRO, Jonathan Vassil to talk about their proven customer acquisition strategies that led to its record-breaking growth. Jonathan joined Toast as the SVP of Sales in 2017.

Payment Methods 271

Payment Methods Acquisition Scale Payments 271

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

We did our own SaaStr analysis a little while back and saw it took on average 10 years to get to a $1B+ acquisition in SaaS. Fast forward to 2021, it sold for $12B. The math on 10 years to $1B acquisition here: The post The Average SaaS IPO Takes 12 Years appeared first on SaaStr. So how long does it take to really Go Big?

SaaS 361

SaaS Acquisition 361

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Customer Count Growth Driven in Large Part by Acquisitions There are only so many big banks to sell to, and nCino’s core customer count has grow slowly but steadily from 335 in 2021 to 428 today. But new products from acquisition have fueled the overall customer count growth to 1,858. #2. Let’s dig in.

Scale 349

Scale Banking Acquisition Cloud 349

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 8, 2025

The Wiz acquisition and the overall growth rates of security companies as a durable budget within software spending has propelled security more broadly. The 2022 spike followed the Coinbase IPO in 2021. Cybersecurity and industrial/manufacturing are the two fastest growing categories. Education & life sciences are right behind.

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Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2023

in Q4 2021 to a paltry $2.1b The total quantity of acquisitions demonstrated greater resilience shrinking by 56%, while the median acquisition value tumbled from $81m to $22m (-72%). A $22m median M&A price implies most of these transactions were acquihires - acquisitions that value a company for its team.

Startup 327

Startup Marketing Acquisition Technology 327

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2022

Especially now in 2022, when venture capital again is scarcer, and more expensive, and far harder to close than it was during the go-go times for SaaS of 2021 and late 2020. Let’s take a look at 3 B2B acquisitions from a few years back as an example. What’s between $100m and $1b in acquisition prices?

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Acquisition Pricing Cloud 363

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2022

And Salesforce noted it’s slowing down hiring, and taking a break from bigger acquisitions, for now. 2021 $21.25B 2020 $17.1B Certainly, public SaaS revenue multiples are way down, and that’s impacted many things, including making VC fundraising substantially harder than in the go-go days of 2021. 2014 $4.1B. Thank you Ohana!

Sales Hiring 347

Sales Hiring Acquisition Cloud Enterprise 347

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2025

With IPOs becoming increasingly rare (especially in B2B since 2021), M&A has become the more likely exit path for most founders. Consider Buyer Reputation – Research the acquirer’s track record with previous acquisitions and their M&A experience. Regulatory issues can destroy value, as seen with Amazon/iRobot.

Technical Review 202

Technical Review Software Review Development Team Review Sales Hiring 202

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2021

— dharmesh (@dharmesh) March 23, 2021. Perhaps the #1 reason though is that acquisitions are … weird and unpredictable. It’s just, once you see how it really gets done, you see a few non-obvious things: For every acquisition, there are 10 others just as good they could have done. An obvious fit.

Acquisition 353

Acquisition Scaling Startup Cloud 353

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2021

Increase your acquisition pipeline with previously invisible accounts . The impact of Intent data has the potential to influence your entire marketing program, especially if Account-based Everything (ABX) is a 2021 marketing objective. The post 9 Proven Ways to Intensify your 2021 ABM Strategy from Bombara appeared first on SaaStr.

Strategy 206

Strategy B2B Sales Enablement Advertising 206

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

In almost every acquisition, I’ve seen a few key team members not get taken care of. If it was an overpriced VC round in 2021, they may ignore it. BigCos mobilize to buy an asset they want anyway if it’s “on the cheap” due to running out of money. Reach out to folks you know, Steve said. They Won’t Know.

Technical Review 261

Technical Review CTO Pricing Mobile 261

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

They’ll update their classic “State of the Cloud” on Sep 27-29 at SaaStr Annual 2021 in the SF Bay Area so come join us there for the latest! And PE firms are doing billion+ acquisitions seemingly every week or two. Unicorn acquisitions, unlike unicorn VC rounds, remain rare. The full report from Bessemer here.

Cloud 336

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 336

SaaStr

APRIL 25, 2021

“The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics” A great classic to look back on before the new CEO of Qualtrics, Zig Serafin, joins us at 2021 SaaStr Enterprise. $8B 8B seemed like a huge number for Qualtrics at the time.

Entertainment 299

Entertainment Cloud Acquisition Retention 299

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2022

At this point, any founder in SaaS should know the public markets have fallen 50% or so from the peaks in 2021. Venture markets were so hot in 2021, that many SaaS founders could sell a few million dollars worth of their shares even in a Series A. M&A (acquisitions) is way, way down. And the amounts smaller.

Marketing 317

Marketing Scale Acquisition Pricing 317

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Well, certainly it exploded in 2021, in my portfolio at least, if perhaps not as dramatically as in the public markets. The startup I invested in that were acquired by PE in the 2020-2021 Boom were acquired for 8x in one case, 12x in another, and 15x in a third. So what do they pay on average? What did he find?

AWS 321

AWS SaaS Pricing Acquisition 321

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2021

2021 – $6.3B. — Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) November 30, 2021. It does include the Auth0 acquisition, but even without, growth is up slightly. Total global @Shopify merchant Black Friday Cyber Monday GMV over the years: 2018 – $1.8B 2019 – $2.9B 2020 – $5.1B And they’re powered by @shopify.

Trends 312

Trends Merchant Services SaaS Cloud 312

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Revenue tripled since Microsoft acquisition in 2016. After a slow patch after the acquisition, LinkedIn hit its new stride and tripled from $3B to $10B ARR from ’16 to ’21. #3. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 28, 2021. Ok at $10B ARR, growing 27%. 250 Billion?

B2C 334

B2C B2B Acquisition Cloud 334

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2021

But since Citrix is public, we can still learn a bit about how Wrike looked right at the time of the acquisition from Citrix’s public filings. Wrike at ~$140m ARR now, $180-$190m est 2021, and break-even (ish). This will make future acquisitions more expensive. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1.

Acquisition 306

Acquisition Finance Investment Enterprise 306

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

The combination of AI excitement, economic stability, and pent-up demand from years of IPO drought has created conditions we haven’t seen since 2021. But here’s the thing: unlike 2021’s “everything rally,” this market appears more discerning.

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SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2021

Protocol and Pitchbook partnered to do a comparison to see what’s happening in Private Equity and enterprise deals so far in 2021, and the data is a bit jaw-dropping: Just in 1H’21, PE invested $20.4B But PE has some interesting advantages for founders over an IPO or a tech acquisition: ad. in SaaS and enterprise deals.

Investment 290

Investment SaaS Acquisition Enterprise 290

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

A good acquisition expands the TAM. Rene sees the $2b+ acquisition of Divvy truly expanding their TAM. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 7, 2021. The keys both are adding more payments and services (like international transfer and payments), but also more seats. Don't tell me you've maxxed out your TAM.

SaaS Payments 64

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services Scale 64

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Yes, that can’t last forever, and half of it was from acquisitions (see the discussion below). Up from 110% at IPO, 124% in 2021, and 121% in 2020. Yes, 158% growth at $800m in ARR. But yes, it’s the most incredible SMB growth story in SaaS we’ve ever seen. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. 131% NRR.

SaaS Payments 65

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Payments 65

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2024

Divvy Acquisition Very, Very Successful Ramp and Brex create the most noise in the expense management space, but Bill scooped up Divvy for $2.5 Billion in 2021 — and boy did it work. But Bill hasn’t. It’s gross margins are 87% — about as high as it gets. #4.

Payments 297

Payments Payment Solutions SMB Acquisition 297

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

2024 is the year every founder think about an acquisition That doesn’t mean do one, but it does mean think about doing 1 that could move the needle. In 2021, no one wanted to sell. Valuations are somewhat down, but more importantly, folks are more rational than they have been in years. In 2022, no one knew what was going on.

Acquisition 298

Acquisition Startup Scaling 298