S|W: The SaaS Weekly – Bessemer says centaurs are cool now, Clio agrees

Plus: 1Password adds Shopify alum Erin Zipes as chief legal officer, doubling C-suite over past year

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Legaltech unicorn Clio now also a centaur after hitting $100 million USD in ARR milestone (BETAKIT)

After becoming a unicorn last year, Clio has now surpassed $100 million USD in annual recurring revenue (ARR), achieving centaur status—a title used to describe private software-as-a-service companies with over $100 million in ARR. According to San Francisco-based VC firm Bessemer’s State of the Cloud 2022 report, “being a centaur is the new milestone to celebrate.”


Apprenticeship Startup Multiverse Raises $220 Million To Solve Tech’s Talent Shortage (FORBES)

Multiverse plans to expand further in the U.S., and broaden its courses, with the Series D funding round that was co-led by StepStone Group, and returning investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst, which values the company at $1.7 billion.


1Password adds Shopify alum Erin Zipes as chief legal officer, doubling C-suite over past year (BETAKIT)

1Password CEO Jeff Shiner said Zipes’ experience leading Shopify through its IPO and her commitment to diversity “will be essential” to the company’s growth trajectory. With the addition of Zipes, 1Password has doubled the size of its C-suite over the past year. It is a year that also saw the company close two massive funding rounds and expand its headcount to almost 800, amid 70 percent year-over-year growth on the B2B side of its business.


Go1 nabs $100M at a $2B+ valuation to upgrade its curated enterprise learning platform (TECHCRUNCH)

For some context on that valuation, Brisbane, Australia-based Go1 has now raised $400 million to date. And when it last announced funding less than a year ago, a $200 million round in July 2021 led by SoftBank, it was valued at half that amount, $1 billion.


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Flare Systems eyes US expansion following $9.5 million Series A funding (BETAKIT)

Menz said the new funds will enable Flare to build out its sales and marketing team. Currently the startup has some 45 employees. Menz expects that to grow to just under 100 employees in the next year, and another 50 in the year after. Inovia Capital led the round with participation from White Star Capital and Luge Capital.


Maropost acquires Swedish AI startup Findify for over $4.45 million USD (BETAKIT)

Maropost offers a commerce and marketing platform that supports direct-to-consumer companies with audience engagement, customer acquisition, and revenue growth. Maropost’s platform has attracted the likes of Mercedes-Benz, HP, the New York Post, Luxottica and Shop.com.


Perimeter 81 Hits Unicorn Status After B Capital-Led $100M Round (CRUNCHBASE)

“The rise of remote work, cloud adoption, fiber, and 5G has created a fundamental shift in the network security landscape, leading companies to replace their on-premises network and security appliances with a secure corporate network over the internet,” said co-founder and CEO Amit Bareket in the release.


PayShepherd closes $3.8 million CAD to fuel North American expansion of contractor billing solution (BETAKIT)

“Now we’ve got customers coast-to-coast and on both sides of the border,” PayShepherd co-founder and CEO Wesley Sessenwein told BetaKit in an interview. After securing another $3.8 million in capital, Sessenwein said the startup’s plans involve “cementing” its presence in Canada and further expanding across the US, adding that given the connections within its customer base, Europe might not be far away either.


Indian edtech PhysicsWallah becomes unicorn with $100 million Series A funding (TECHCRUNCH)

“The company has been profitable since inception with positive cash flows and reserves,” said Alakh Pandey, founder and chief executive of PW, in a statement. “Our revenue grew ninefold in the year 2021-2022 vis-a-vis 2020-2021. Our current run rate for FY 2023 is at $65 million,” he added.


Orna raises over $1 million in seed funding to bolster AI-powered cybersecurity platform (BETAKIT)

Using natural language processing, Orna’s AI engine is able to collate data across 28 sources, such as the customer’s infrastructure and the Dark Web, to generate highly detailed attack and incident-specific tasks and actions for teams in IT, legal, executive, HR, communications, and other domains.


Meta Scrutinizing Sheryl Sandberg’s Use of Facebook Resources Over Several Years (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

The lawyers investigating Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg’s use of corporate resources are examining behavior going back several years, said people familiar with the matter, focusing on the extent to which staffers worked on her personal projects.


Starting with Ontario, Kruzee aims to become North America’s leading online driving school (BETAKIT)

In an interview with BetaKit, Castaldo argued that COVID-19 exposed everything from the general operational inefficiency of driving schools to the “shady” business practices of some of the industry’s worst operators. Pandemic public health restrictions compelled traditionally in-person and paper and pen-reliant driving schools to put together online offerings, which Castaldo claims left many overburdened.


Michael Edgar

Michael Edgar

Michael is a multimedia journalist working out of the U.K. and a staff writer for BetaKit.

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