The SaaS CFO

Revend, an Antwerp, Belgium-based company that provides a SaaS e-commerce tool to defend your e-commerce revenue, raised €1 million in seed funding. Revend protects risks posed against your revenue. The round was led by Pitchdrive, with participation from Seeder Fund and business angel Pieter Casneuf. I interviewed Peter Wellens, co-founder and CEO at Revend. Peter is a commercial engineer by trade. He’s founded several companies in the solar and social network spaces. Peter wanted to raise from a position of strength. He landed trial customers that potential investors could speak to. The funds will be used to hire additional engineering talent and prepare for a full release to the broader market. The company also received a grant from the federal government that supports the development of AI and innovative technology. Founded 2022 Staff of 6 Pre-revenue 20 trial customers HQ in Antwerp Be capital efficient Peter Wellen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwellens/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/revend-raises-1-million-in-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

KYP is a risk intelligence platform that delivers continuous, real-time partner monitoring and holistic intelligence. It recently announced an £800,000 pre-seed round.  KYP is based in London. The investment was from US-based 1414 Ventures, BH Ventures, and some leading UK angel investors. I interviewed Alan Nagle, founder and CEO at KYP.  Alan is originally from Dublin and has a long history in fraud prevention.  KYP, or Know Your Partner, monitors supplier risk continuously rather than on a periodic basis. Alan states that investors have opened a bunch of doors for new prospects.  Get the leads and then attack with a repeatable founder-led sales model. Founded 2021 £800K pre-seed round 7 staff London Alan Nagle’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-nagle-9524941/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/kyp-raises-800-000-in-pre-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout  Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Spiny creates software and solutions specifically designed for digital publishing businesses. They streamline business data, provide insights, and optimize revenue. I interviewed Nana Nyantekyi, Founder at Spiny.ai. Nana discusses his experience in the digital media startup industry and CBS Interactive, and how those experiences led him to create Spiny.ai. Spiny.ai facilitates easier data manipulation for publishers and allows them to use data to power their digital media businesses more effectively. Founded 2020 $2.5M Seed Round 13 Staff HQ in Nashville, TN, USA Nana Nyantekyi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-b-nyantekyi-3740aa103/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/spiny-ai-raises-2-5-million-in-funding Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Jua's weather prediction model will provide a global one-kilometer square's worth of coverage every five minutes and can predict more than fifteen different weather-based parameters, including precipitation, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. I interviewed Andreas Brenner, Co-founder and CEO of Jua. He’s had a previous exit in fleet management software to Battery Ventures. Now, he’s tackling weather. Jua plans to provide startups, companies, government institutions, and researchers with the ability to create purpose-built weather models in a matter of hours. Jua is pre-revenue and experimenting with its ideal customer profile. Founded April 2022 $2.5M pre-seed round Staff of 17 Pre-revenue Luck favors the prepared Andreas Brenner’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasbrenner/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/jua-raises-2-5-million-in-pre-seed-round Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Saile, a Kansas City, MO-based startup that developed patent-pending AI technology that creates personality-driven sales robots known as “sailebots”, raised $1.35 million in seed funding. I interviewed Nick Smith, CEO and Founder at Saile. He’s leveraging his sales background to help sales reps triple their productivity. His current ideal customer profile is Fortune 1000 companies. Saile’s technology learns deeply about individual sales reps to boost their productivity. The round was led by Atlanta-based Valor Ventures, with participation by the KCRise Fund, a Kansas City-based venture capital firm. Founded 2018 $1.35M Raised KC and NYC 18 staff and growing Triple sales rep productivity Nick Smith's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nixmith/ Saile's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/saile/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/saile-raises-1-35-million-in-seed-round  Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Laika (now Thoropass) provides a SaaS platform for companies to establish compliance practices to meet requirements from regulators and enterprise customers. The platform combines automated infosec workflows, audits, monitoring, and vendor diligence while subject matter experts support customers at every step of the compliance process. I interviewed Austin Ogilvie, the Co-CEO and Founder of Laika. He also founded YHAT, a machine learning infrastructure product, and worked at OnDeck Capital. Austin is self-taught in technical skills, primarily using Python, and his latest company is aimed at B2B software companies of all sizes. Austin shares his insights on the importance of understanding compliance requirements and implementing the right controls in a robust manner. Founded 2019 Staff of 190 $50M Series C $100M raised to date Should pass $10M ARR Raise when you don’t need it [00:00:22] Information security and compliance. [00:03:31] Vendor risk in enterprise customers. [00:07:23] Compliance in B2B SaaS. [00:13:51] Company's funding history. [00:14:48] SaaS fundraising lessons. [00:18:11] New information security standards. Austin Ogilvie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinogilvie/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/laika-raises-50-million-in-series-c Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

I have a special edition of the show today.  I recently attended a great software event co-hosted by GLC Advisors and a private equity firm. They provided the latest insights into what’s happening on the front lines of software M&A. I want to share these insights with my SaaS community, so I invited Jim Williams with GLC Advisors onto the show for a Spring M&A Update. We cover the following and more. Deal volume in 2021 and 2022 Valuation trends in 2021, 2022, and today Bid/Ask spread differences Credit market impact on levered buyout deals Is it a buyer's or seller's market Valuations are under pressure What does it take for 10x ARR valuation? Why SaaS metrics are being scrutinized Platform vs add-on buys What to expect in 2023 and beyond Jim Williams LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-williams-5754953/ Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Airplane, a San Francisco, CA-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) development platform, closed a $32 million Series B funding round led by Thrive Capital with participation from Benchmark, bringing the startup’s total raised to $40.5 million. I interviewed Ravi Parikh, Co-Founder at Airplane. He is also the former co-founder of Heap. Ravi is on a mission to automate the harder part of admin tools in applications. This is the behind-the-scenes code necessary to run your applications. Airplane has a sales and PLG led motion. His former founder background helped with current capital raises. Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen, Confluent co-founder Neha Narkhede, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, Airtable co-founders Howie Liu and Andrew Ofstad, Allison Pickens from The New Normal Fund, Behance founder Scott Belsky, Jaren Glover, Gokul Rajaram, Liu Jiang, Comma Capital, and several others also participated in the round. The funds will be put toward growing Airplane’s team while expanding its product to new markets. Founded in December 2020 Staff of 20 $40.5M Raised Sub 10M ARR SLG + PLG Developer Tools Ravi Parikh’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviparikh2/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/airplane-raises-32-million-in-series-b Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Aug X Labs, a New York-based AI video technology startup, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to use AI to democratize video creation by content creators. I interviewed Jeremy Toeman, Founder and CEO, who has a long history of building consumer apps. He built an AI-assisted visual storytelling service that saves time and money for creators. The company is building an AI-based visual storytelling platform that automatically transforms text or audio prompts into compelling, purpose-driven videos that convert audiences. Its platform allows users to automatically augment their video creations using open or licensed media (photos, short clips, etc.), generative media (AI Art), and owned media. Aug X Labs' initial investors and advisers include Yohei Nakajima (Untappd.VC), Noah Gale (Co-Founder, Tribe AI), Marc Whitten (SVP & GM, Create @ Unity), Alanna Gregory (Crosscut VC), David Beck (Brightcove), Ben Parr (Octane.AI), Rahim Fazal (CEO of SV Academy/x-Oracle), Jesse Redniss (Qonsent), Avner Ronen (founder, Boxee), Kevin Conroy, Rob Hoffer, Ryan Bricklemyer, Deep Banerji, Scott Ryan, and others. Founded January 2022 $1M raised to date 9 staff and 3 contractors Pre-revenue Engage investors early and be prepared Jeremy Toeman’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtoeman/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/aug-x-labs-raises-1-million-in-pre-seed-round Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Orderlion, a Vienna, Austria-based SaaS platform for the food and beverage industry, raised €4 million in pre-Series A funding, bringing its total raised to about €7.5 million since its 2018 inception. I interviewed Stefan Strohmer, CEO and Co-founder. The technology has not changed in fifty years to help restaurants manage the supply chain back to suppliers. Stefan founded the company in 2018 and it took two years to build the MVP. Orderlion is now re-planning to step up expansion plans, making B2B food supply chains more scalable. A European restaurant technology investment firm led the new investment round. Additional investors include VC firms Rockstart, seed + speed Ventures, tecnet, and Gateway Ventures, among others. The funding will be utilized for international expansion, growing the team, and extending the company's product line-up. Founded in 2018 Staff of 30 Remote company Raised 7.5M to date 3 phases to growth Stefan Strohmer’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanstrohmer/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/orderlion-raises-4-million-in-pre-series-a Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray