Alteryx, ZoomInfo, Atlassian Have Blow Out Quarters. Datadog grows 74% at $2B in ARR. Ping Identify Acquired for $2.8 Billion. Don’t Call it a Downturn.

So are we in a downturn in SaaS?  Certainly, segments are.  eCommerce, video, and more are having post-crazy growth hangovers.  And inflation is awful.  And startups that had planned on a big up round this year are in many cases, really struggling.

But where is SaaS really today?  Plenty of folks are doing quite well.  Let’s take a look at a few great examples just from this week:

#1.  ZoomInfo blows out the quarter — at $1B+ ARR.  Zoominfo grew an incredible 54% at $1B+ in ARR this past quarter.  With an incredible 40% of that dropping to free-cash flow.  That’s a smidge down from 59% last quarter, but still incredible growth that sent the stock skyrocketing.  ZoomInfo importantly also raised guidance for the year, saying things are doing even better.  Take a look at our deep dive with CEO Henry Shuck from 2022 SaaStr Europa here:

#2.  Alteryx, a leading public SaaS ETL company, announced it was growing 33% at $730m in ARR!  Exceeding expectations again, and importantly, also raising guidance in revenues for the full year.

#3.  And a biggie, Thoma Bravo, one of the bigger Private Equity firms, bought public Ping Identity for $2.8B — at $280m in ARR.  Ping Identity is a great company, but a distant #2 or #3 or more behind Okta and other leaders.  But one of the savviest PE firms decided it was undervalued on its way to $1B in ARR, and picked it up for 10x ARR.  Not a crazy 2021 multiple.  But a pretty darn solid one, and much higher than Zendesk recently, for example.

4.  Atlassian traded up 12% as it reported growing 36% at $3B in ARR.  And even more importantly, the CEOs “reiterated their previous guidance of 50% cloud revenue growth in the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years.”  There will be no slowdown in their business, says Atlassian.

5.  And even SaaS and Cloud leaders that come up a tiny bit short of Wall Street’s lofty expectations are in many cases still doing incredibly well.  Datadog announced this week it’s growing a stunning 74% at $2 Billion in ARR!! Wall Street expected them to raise for the next quarters more than they did, so the stock didn’t trade up.  But still … 74% growth at $2 Billion in ARR.  It’s jaw-dropping.

I’m not saying things aren’t very, very different than 2021.  They are.  And multiples have been cut in half. I’m not saying there isn’t a radical slow down in venture capital, with a ton of valuation compression.  There is.

It’s just, the forces that are propelling SaaS to grow like never before haven’t changed.  If 2021 was the Best of Times for SaaS, right now is still pretty close.  At least, in many segments.