So how are the top SaaS and Cloud companies doing in 2023?
Bessemer’s latest Cloud 100 answers the question. Their top 100 SaaS and Cloud companies — the “Cloud 100” — are almost all at $100m+ ARR, and growing on average 55% year-over-year.
Now that’s still pretty darn impressive at $100m+ ARR. But in 2022, they were growing 100% annually:
The impacts aren’t even, however. I know a few in the Cloud 100 whose growth has plummeted to 20% or lower. And several of the high-fliers are growing faster than ever, over 100%.
Still, averages are good to give us all a sense of overall “macro” impacts in SaaS. Net net, the leaders’ growth has plummeted by almost half. Still growing, but relying a lot on upsell and retention.
Here’s to an uptick in 2024!!
The macro background has nonetheless hurt the average Cloud 100 company. For years we saw growth rates increase, but in 2023, the average growth rate for a Cloud 100 company – the 100 best private companies in the world – has been nearly halved. After years of defying gravity and reaching record highs, headwinds eventually caught up with Cloud 100 fundamentals. The average Cloud 100 revenue growth rate fell significantly to 55% within the year, with the growth rate of the top quartile companies falling to 70%, once again reinforcing the extremely challenging year that the world’s best cloud companies had to deal with.
Also, worth noting almost everyone in the Cloud 100 has either gotten to cash-flow positive or is forecasting to get there by 2024. Almost everyone:
