Funding Watch is Localogy’s series that tracks funding to SMB-focused startups and tech providers. See the rest of the series here.
Things continue to heat up in SMB Saas. For those unfamiliar, this sector is represented by companies that build software tools for small businesses. It’s everything from “front of the house” marketing and customer acquisition tools, to “back of the house,” operational management (think: payroll).
This is a wide range of companies and opportunities as we examine in an upcoming white paper. And while following the sector on an ongoing basis, we’re struck by the level of venture funding it’s receiving. So for the latest Funding Watch post, we’re rounding recent SMB-Saas funding inflows.
Here’s the latest roundup of the top 10 funding rounds (listed in order of investment dollars). We’ll be back semi-weekly with 10 more, as the year is off to a big start in SMB SaaS investment:
Utah-based Podium has closed a $125 million C round from Y Combinator’s Continuity fund, Sapphire Ventures, Alkeon, Recruit Co. Ltd., IVP, GV, Summit, and Accel. The company is focused on reviews aggregation and management for local businesses, but has expanded into customer engagement software including messaging.
Chicago-based Active Campaign closed a $100 million Series B round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity and PE firm Silversmith Capital Partners. The company’s flagship product is a marketing and sales automation suite for SMBs and larger enterprises.
Customer engagement platform Dixa, has closed a $36 million Series B funding round lead by Notion Capital, with participation from Project A Ventures and SEED Capital. The company’s software facilitates more personalized customer support and smart routing across communication channels like phone, messaging and email.
Switzerland-based Frontify has raised $22.3 million in funding led by EQT Ventures, with participation also from Blossom Capital, Datartis Ventures, Thomas Dübendorfer, Tenderloin Ventures and Myke Näf. The company helps businesses manage and keep secure their digital brand assets, such as logos.
Customer service tech provider Cresta has raised $21 million in funding from Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The Sebastion Thrun-founded company develops automation software for phone-based customer service, including customer insights for human operators to increase performance.
Chatbot management firm Directly has raised $20 million in funding led by Samsung NEXT, Industry Ventures, AvidBank, M12 (Microsoft’s VC), Costanoa Ventures, True Ventures and Northgate. The company makes it easier for businesses to manage and automate customer inquiries via chatbots.
Munich-based Global Savings Group has raised $13 million in funding from Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, DTCP and RTP Global. The company offers commerce content solutions, which manages all of the brand and product images used in the marketing and sale of a given company’s products.
London-based Shipamax has raised a $7 million funding round from Mosaic Ventures, with participation from Crane Venture Partners, Y Combinator and other existing investors. The company’s SaaS offering helps freight forwarders and other logistics companies automate their back-office processes.
Honorable Mentions
Though these aren’t technically funding rounds, here are two notable deals in the local commerce sector. We wrote about both of them this week so follow the links below to go straight to our deeper dive…
