S|W: The SaaS Weekly – The latest Canadian unicorn

The SaaS Weekly is a weekly newsletter covering major SaaS news from Canada and around the globe.

Subscribe to S|W using the form at the bottom of this page to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important SaaS news every week!


Trulioo hits $2 billion CAD valuation following $476 million Series D led by TCV (BETAKIT)

The company’s last round was in 2019 when Trulioo secured $70 million CAD. Following the raise, Trulioo founding CEO Stephen Ufford stepped down from his leadership position.


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Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi files to go public, earned a small profit last quarter on $6.4 billion in revenue (CNBC)

In its filing, the company listed a net income of $837 million before certain payouts to shareholders.


Q4 looks to raise $150 million CAD through IPO (BETAKIT)

Q4 first filed to go public in May, looking to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘QFOR.’


Amazon to add 1,800 Canadian tech, corporate jobs this year as part of broader hiring plans (BETAKIT)

The news comes around eight months after Amazon first said it planned to add 3,500 new corporate and tech jobs in Toronto and Vancouver.


Monday.com shares jump at IPO, minting a new cloud software billionaire in Israel (FORBES)

Using its most recent quarter, the company projects an annualized revenue run rate of $236 million for this year, on growth of 85% – and they’re looking at winning the future of work.


Kepler raises $72.6 million CAD as the firm looks to grow network, expand to US (BETAKIT)

Kepler has already reached new milestones this year, launching eight satellites in January, and a further two in March.


Poka secures $30 million CAD Series B round (BETAKIT)

The startup raised $6.4 million CAD in funding last June to give itself some runway during COVID-19.


UBS investment makes Byju’s the most valuable startup in India (TECHCRUNCH)

The pandemic, which prompted New Delhi to enforce a months-long nationwide lockdown and close schools, accelerated its growth, and those of several other online learning startups including Unacademy and Vedantu.


GreenSky Capital secures $15 million in first close of Fund IV (BETAKIT)

“With Fund IV, we were excited to not only double the size of assets under management, but to double the size of our limited partnership investor base,” said Mike List, one of GreenSky’s managing partners.


Seattle cybersecurity startup ExtraHop to be acquired by private equity firms in $900M deal (GEEKWIRE)

It’s one of the largest acquisitions of a Seattle-area tech startup to date, and comes amid heightened cybersecurity concerns across industries.


Carter Griffin on why the best SaaS companies are obsessive about churn (BETAKIT)

In an interview for the #CIBCInnovationEconomy podcast series, Carter Griffin, General Partner at Updata Partners, shared the metrics he really cares about as an investor.


MasterClass reveals first two Canadian hub hires, plans to add dozens more (BETAKIT)

The hires come less than a month after BetaKit first reported MasterClass’s plans to open a new engineering hub in Kitchener-Waterloo, as the United States (US) startup looks to tap into the Waterloo Region’s engineering, product, design and data talent pool.


Lawmakers, taking aim at big tech, push sweeping overhaul of antitrust (NEW YORK TIMES)

A bipartisan group of House members introduced five bills targeting Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The news comes as Google settles a French antitrust case over advertising practices.


Pinterest looking for new Canada country manager (BETAKIT)

Earlier this year, Pinterest revealed plans to hire an additional 50 team members in Toronto across engineering, sales, insights, and marketing roles.


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