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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Mindset AI, a London, UK-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm that helps businesses within the knowledge economy to digitize their services and scale their expertise, raised £1.65 million from Mercia and angel investors.

The funding will enable Mindset.AI to expand its team with several key appointments, boost its sales and marketing activity, and further enhance the platform.

I had a great conversation with Barrie Hadfield, CEO and co-founder of Mindset AI.

Barrie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barriehadfield/

The SaaS News story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/mindset-ai-raises-1-65-million-in-funding