S|W: The SaaS Weekly – Alibaba gains cloud momentum

The logo of online shopping portal Alibaba.com is seen near its office in Hong Kong on February 22, 2012. The share price of Chinese online shopping portal Alibaba.com soared in Hong Kong after its parent company said it plans to take the company private for 2.3 billion USD. AFP PHOTO / AARON TAM (Photo credit should read aaron tam/AFP/Getty Images)

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Wattpad releases diversity and inclusion survey results, encourages Canadian tech to do same (BETAKIT)

In an industry that has garnered its own reputation for being unwelcoming to people in marginalized groups, Canadian tech companies struggle to share what they’re doing to be part of the solution.


Evernote refines integrations with Slack and Salesforce (TECHCRUNCH)

Users can take an Evernote note in Slack, which will then show up in Evernote automatically in a “Notes from Slack” folder.


Uber (finally) hires a CFO to take it public (AXIOS)

Uber announced that it has hired veteran Wall Street executive Nelson Chai as chief financial officer, a position that has been empty since 2015.


Event tech startup PlayPass raises €1.9M in funding (FINSMES)

PlayPass provides RFID solutions to allow clients to gain insight into the operational flow of an event and to enhance and streamline the event experience for all parties involved.


ServiceNow-Box integration brings together two enterprise cloud stalwarts (TECHCRUNCH)

The new capabilities give employees direct access to documents and folders stored and managed in Box’s cloud content management platform, directly from the Now Platform, which helps companies manage business processes, including IT, human resources, customer service, and security.


Slack raises $427 USD million with $7.1 billion USD valuation (BETAKIT)

To date, Slack has raised $841 million from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Accel, and Andreessen Horowitz.


Armory lands $10M Series A to bring continuous delivery to enterprise masses (TECHCRUNCH)

Armory’s Series A was led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and Robin Vasan.


Gravity and Microsoft forge strategic partnership to digitize supply chains (VENTUREBEAT)

Gravity will leverage Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to continue the deployment of market-leading, differentiated SaaS solutions for its customers at a faster pace.


Sonder closes new round, reveals it’s raised $135 million to date (BETAKIT)

Sonder’s funding to date was bolstered by its most recent $85 million Series C led by Greenoaks Capital.


Alibaba continues to gain cloud momentum (TECHCRUNCH)

Alibaba’s cloud business grew 93 percent in the most recent quarter to $710 million. That’s down a smidgen from the gaudy triple digit growth of last report, but their market share has doubled in just two years, and they are growing fast.


Australian procurement platform startup VendorPanel raises US$1.72 million to to accelerate growth and simplify procurement (TECHSTARTUPS)

The funding was led by Microequities Venture Capital Fund, with strategic investment by Aconex founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot.


Nylas scores $16M Series B to expand email API tool (TECHCRUNCH)

The funding was led by Spark Capital.


Plurilock surpasses $1 million in revenue for biometric authentication software (BETAKIT)

The company raised a $3 million funding round in July.


Sequoia wraps up new $695M fund for India and Southeast Asia (TECHCRUNCH)

“As we look to the future, the menu of investment opportunities is unprecedented — from mobile internet to online brands, enterprise SaaS to AI, crypto to deep tech in healthcare, new age consumer brands and beyond,” Sequoia wrote in a blog post.


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Amira Zubairi

Amira Zubairi is a staff writer and content creator at BetaKit with a strong interest in Canadian startup, business, and legal tech news. In her free time, Amira indulges in baking desserts, working out, and watching legal shows.

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