The SaaS Weekly is a weekly newsletter covering major SaaS news from Canada and around the globe.
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Uber to invest more than $200 million CAD in expanding Toronto presence (BETAKIT)
The new expansion will place the company’s headcount in Toronto over 500 employees within the next few years.
Hybrid cloud data specialist Datrium nabs $60M led by Samsung at a $282M valuation (TECHCRUNCH)
This latest round was led by Samsung’s Catalyst Fund, with Icon Ventures, NEA and Lightspeed Venture Partners also participating.
Microsoft announces significant investments in Canadian presence (BETAKIT)
In addition to the new Toronto HQ, Microsoft has committed $570 million to developing its presence in Canada, and $10 million to the Cascadia Innovation Corridor.
Wasabi just landed $68 million to upend cloud storage (TECHCRUNCH)
Wasabi is going after fat data targets like media and entertainment and genomics, where they believe companies looking for the best price possible will bypass the big three — Amazon, Google and Microsoft — to build a more cost-effective storage solution.
Waterloo-based Bonfire acquired for $140 million CAD in ‘Govtech’ merger (BETAKIT)
Bonfire will merge with five other ‘Govtech’ SaaS and cloud platforms to form a new publicly traded company.
3 pointers to help SaaS startups decide how to invest in sales and marketing (ENTREPRENEUR)
Spending money on marketing and sales will only give results when you adopt a strategy that has worked in the past.
Raw Signal Group will teach you to be a better tech leader at RBC #FutureMakers (BETAKIT)
The event takes place on September 18. BetaKit readers can get a 100% discount on tickets with the promo code BetaKit_FM.
Gartner predicts SaaS revenues to reach $85 billion in 2019 (ZDNET)
Globally speaking, Gartner predicts that by 2021, cloud revenues will total $278 billion.
Shopify’s Satish Kanwar: early-stage entrepreneurs must learn “ruthless prioritization” (BETAKIT)
“I would focus on quality and prioritize the things that have the biggest impact for your customer and your vision.”
Website builder Strikingly raises $10M Series A+ to continue growth in China (TECHCRUNCH)
The funding was led by Cathay Capital, with participation from CAS Holding.
Zendesk snaps up SF sales software platform (BIZJOURNALS)
Zendesk has acquired FutureSimple Inc., the company behind sales automation software Base, for an undisclosed price, the move fueling its leap into the CRM arena.
Q4 raises $49 million CAD Series C led by Napier Park (BETAKIT)
Q4’s last funding round was a $22 million Series B in 2016.
Crowdcube acquires business reporting software Supdate (TECHCRUNCH)
Supdate offers SaaS for businesses to create and share company news and metrics with shareholders.
Raleigh’s Pendo raises $50 million to expand its cloud-based product platform to the EU (VENTUREBEAT)
The funding was led by Palo Alto’s Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors Pendo investors Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital, and Contour Venture Partners.
