The SaaS CFO

I interviewed Thomas Ramsøy, CEO and founder of Neurons. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology and was a clinical psychologist. He and his company have worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world to understand how consumers respond to ads. He is helping these brands stop the waste in their marketing budget. Founded in 2013 Started as a consulting agency ~100 staff Based in Copenhagen Goal to hit 5M ARR in 2023 7M total raised + venture debt Neurons, a Danish consumer neuroscience company that helps businesses better understand unconscious and conscious responses, secured over €6 million in seed funding. Fairpoint Capital Vækstfonden and Finance Zealand backed the round. The round will fund the development of unique, state-of-the-art products, the scaling up of the company to 200 employees, and will bring a sizeable increase in annual recurring revenue by 2025. Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzramsoy/ Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/neurons-raises-over-6-million-in-seed-round/

Oort, a Boston, MA-based identity-centric enterprise security platform, raised $15 million in the funding of Seed and Series A rounds. I interviewed Matt Caulfield, Founder and CEO at Oort. Matt put his time in as a cloud/systems engineer. While working at a Fortune 100 company, he saw a market opportunity in security and ditched his employee title for SaaS founder. Oort will use the funds to grow and further accelerate its go-to-market (GTM) strategy and leadership in identity threat detection and response. The round was co-led by .406 Ventures, Energy Impact Partners (EIP), and Cisco Investments and joined by existing investors including 645 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and First Star Ventures. CFO's watch out! You are a security target. Oort protects against account takeovers Founded 2019 Team size of 20 $15M total raised Land and expand GTM strategy Very engaged customers were a signal to raise Matt Caulfield’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcaulfie/ Fundraise Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/oort-raises-15-million-in-funding

Devicie, a Sydney, Australia-based software startup that helps companies secure their workers’ laptops, announced that it raised $14 million AUD in Series A funding. The round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from leading Australian cybersecurity firm CyberCX. Devicie previously raised $1.3 million in seed capital from angel investors and the cybersecurity venture accelerator program CyRise. I interviewed Martin McGregor, CEO and co-founder. Devicie was born out of a cybersecurity consultancy in 2020. $15.3M AUD raised in total Founded 2020 Staff of 18 Millions of ARR, hoping to double Early prospects did not believe their product claims Would have been more selective with time spent with VC’s What’s next; automate onboarding Martin McGregor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdmc/ Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/devicie-raises-14-million-in-series-a

I interviewed Tom Ross, CEO of Andgo Systems. This is not your regular shift scheduling software. Andgo is innovating on intelligent shift fill automation in complex industries such as healthcare and manufacturing. No more waiting for sick calls and then manually calling employees to fill open shifts. Not surprisingly the pandemic drove growth. The pandemic crushed the status quo and demanded the need for real-time analytics of labor staffing. Tom discloses his ARR range in this episode and plans to hire another 5-10 staff on top of its 60 employees. Andgo Systems (Andgo), a Saskatoon, Canada-based provider of intelligent workflow automation solutions for dynamic absence onboarding, shift filling, and vacation mapping raised $5.6 million CAD in Series A funding. The round was co-led by First Ascent Ventures and Waterline Ventures, based out of Toronto and Boston, respectively. Tom Ross’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasrosscan/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/andgo-systems-raises-5-6-million-in-series-a

HPC-AI Tech, a Beijing, China-based artificial intelligence high-performance optimization platform, closed $6 million in seed and angel rounds. The angel round was led by BlueRun Ventures China (BRV China); the funds will be mainly used to bring in more talented teams and expand the business market. I interviewed Yang You, founder of HPC-AI Technology. He also holds a PhD and is a professor at the National University of Singapore. The number of parameters in AI modeling has increased 35x. Yang aims to make AI modeling faster and more efficient. Founded August 2021 Team of 30 Based in US and Singapore $7M raised to date $1M ARR Used open-source as a go-to-market strategy Yang You’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yang-you-0b92914b/ HPC-AI Technology’s Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/hpc-ai-tech-completes-6-million-in-funding

Mesh Payments, a New York-based corporate payment and spend management platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Entrée Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, and existing investors TLV Partners and Meron Capital. I interviewed Oded Zehavi, CEO and co-founder at Mesh Payments. He is a self-described “payments geek.” Mesh pivoted product strategy during the pandemic. $123M raised, series B of $50M 150 staff, 100 engineers NYC headquarters Servicing 1,000 global companies $1B payment value run rate Doubling down on market share growth Fundraising is about relationships Oded Zehavi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odedzehavi/ Mesh’s fundraising story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/mesh-payments-raises-50-million-in-series-b

Duel, a London, UK-based leading brand advocacy platform used by companies including ASOS, Dove, and Charlotte Tilbury, secured a $3 million (£2.5m) seed funding round led by SuperSeed. The investment will enable Duel to continue its 13 percent monthly growth rate in 2022 and better serve its expanding global client base. I spoke with Paul Archer, CEO and Founder of Duel. Paul’s tech experience dates back to when he wrote first video game at age 12. He founded Duel to turn word-of-mouth brand referrals into a scalable go-to-market motion. Founder 2016 Raised $3M Based in London 30 staff and growing Took 5 years to find product market fit Paul discloses his ARR number Do reference calls on potential investors   Paul's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/ Duel's Fundraising Story:  https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/duel-raises-3-million-in-seed-round

Lionize, a New York-based SaaS leader in the influencer marketing industry announced that it secured a $3 million seed investment. The round was led by St. Louis-based Cultivation Capital, with participation by ScOp Venture Capital, a Santa Barbara-based firm managed by DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor. I spoke with Chris Buetti, co-founder and CEO of Lionize. He is a data scientist turned SaaS founder. The initial concept of Lionize started as an interview project. Chris learned the hard way through his agency that scaling micro-influencers campaigns is hard. Founded 2018 Team size of 15 North of 1M ARR 4.4M raised to date Chris wished he know more about the due diligence process When fundraising, try to get past the junior guys to the partners Chris Buetti’s LinkedIn Lionize fundraising story

You may know David Spitz as the creator of the acclaimed Pacific Crest / Key Banc SaaS metrics survey.  He was a successful investment banker for over 30 years and then pulled the rip cord to found his own SaaS company. David realized that traditional benchmarking is painful, using manual processes and ill-suited survey tools.  He founded Benchsights in 2021 to solve this pain. With BenchSights, he built a software and data platform that focuses on software sales and compensation benchmarks. David shares his investment banking journey and his experience as a first-time SaaS founder. David’s LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/dspitz/ Benchmark your SaaS sales Here https://benchsights.com/

Headroom, a San Francisco, CA-based meeting platform leveraging artificial intelligence to improve communications and productivity, has announced that it raised $9 million in funding. The capital brings total funding to date to $14 million and will be used to expand Headroom’s team, product development, and mobile offering. I interviewed Julian Green, CEO and co-founder, using Headroom’s application. Julian has been involved in tech and startups since 1998. Headroom is solving the problem of efficient meetings. We need better meetings and we need to put back the humanity in our interactions. Founded in 2020 Recently raised $9M Staff of 14, fully remote Make sure you are aligned with investors on company milestones Julian Green’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliangreen/ The SaaS News Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/headroom-raises-9-million-in-funding