The SaaS CFO

Zift Solutions, a Cary, NC-based provider of Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) software, recently announced that it raised $70 million in funding.

I interviewed Gordon Rapkin, CEO of Zift Solutions. Gordon is a serial CEO, and it shows in his knowledge, experience, and insight. He is a 5X CEO.

The round was led by Investcorp Technology Partners (“ITP”) with participation from existing institutional investors Arrowroot, Oxx, SSM, and AshGrove Capital.

Zift will use the $70M to invest in its go-to-market engine, marketing awareness, new geographies, and in innovation.

It takes twice as long as you think to raise capital according to Gordon, but he saw improving SaaS metrics, win rates, and a repeatable sales process.

Gordon Rapkin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonrapkin/

SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/zift-solutions-raises-70-million-in-funding

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

[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

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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.

Jim Williams LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-williams-5754953/

Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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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.

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

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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.

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