The SaaS CFO

Mesh Payments, a New York-based corporate payment and spend management platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Entrée Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, and existing investors TLV Partners and Meron Capital. I interviewed Oded Zehavi, CEO and co-founder at Mesh Payments. He is a self-described “payments geek.” Mesh pivoted product strategy during the pandemic. $123M raised, series B of $50M 150 staff, 100 engineers NYC headquarters Servicing 1,000 global companies $1B payment value run rate Doubling down on market share growth Fundraising is about relationships Oded Zehavi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odedzehavi/ Mesh’s fundraising story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/mesh-payments-raises-50-million-in-series-b

Duel, a London, UK-based leading brand advocacy platform used by companies including ASOS, Dove, and Charlotte Tilbury, secured a $3 million (£2.5m) seed funding round led by SuperSeed. The investment will enable Duel to continue its 13 percent monthly growth rate in 2022 and better serve its expanding global client base. I spoke with Paul Archer, CEO and Founder of Duel. Paul’s tech experience dates back to when he wrote first video game at age 12. He founded Duel to turn word-of-mouth brand referrals into a scalable go-to-market motion. Founder 2016 Raised $3M Based in London 30 staff and growing Took 5 years to find product market fit Paul discloses his ARR number Do reference calls on potential investors   Paul's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/ Duel's Fundraising Story:  https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/duel-raises-3-million-in-seed-round

Lionize, a New York-based SaaS leader in the influencer marketing industry announced that it secured a $3 million seed investment. The round was led by St. Louis-based Cultivation Capital, with participation by ScOp Venture Capital, a Santa Barbara-based firm managed by DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor. I spoke with Chris Buetti, co-founder and CEO of Lionize. He is a data scientist turned SaaS founder. The initial concept of Lionize started as an interview project. Chris learned the hard way through his agency that scaling micro-influencers campaigns is hard. Founded 2018 Team size of 15 North of 1M ARR 4.4M raised to date Chris wished he know more about the due diligence process When fundraising, try to get past the junior guys to the partners Chris Buetti’s LinkedIn Lionize fundraising story

You may know David Spitz as the creator of the acclaimed Pacific Crest / Key Banc SaaS metrics survey.  He was a successful investment banker for over 30 years and then pulled the rip cord to found his own SaaS company. David realized that traditional benchmarking is painful, using manual processes and ill-suited survey tools.  He founded Benchsights in 2021 to solve this pain. With BenchSights, he built a software and data platform that focuses on software sales and compensation benchmarks. David shares his investment banking journey and his experience as a first-time SaaS founder. David’s LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/dspitz/ Benchmark your SaaS sales Here https://benchsights.com/

Headroom, a San Francisco, CA-based meeting platform leveraging artificial intelligence to improve communications and productivity, has announced that it raised $9 million in funding. The capital brings total funding to date to $14 million and will be used to expand Headroom’s team, product development, and mobile offering. I interviewed Julian Green, CEO and co-founder, using Headroom’s application. Julian has been involved in tech and startups since 1998. Headroom is solving the problem of efficient meetings. We need better meetings and we need to put back the humanity in our interactions. Founded in 2020 Recently raised $9M Staff of 14, fully remote Make sure you are aligned with investors on company milestones Julian Green’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliangreen/ The SaaS News Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/headroom-raises-9-million-in-funding

Mindset AI, a London, UK-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm that helps businesses within the knowledge economy to digitize their services and scale their expertise, raised £1.65 million from Mercia and angel investors. The funding will enable Mindset.AI to expand its team with several key appointments, boost its sales and marketing activity, and further enhance the platform. I had a great conversation with Barrie Hadfield, CEO and co-founder of Mindset AI. Founded in 2020 Staff of 50, fully distributed Just passed 1M ARR Sitting on the stairs at a conference and hatched the idea Uses ML to track key outcomes and customize the user experience Found product market fit; it was the right to raise and scale Wants to write a book on fundraising Barrie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barriehadfield/ The SaaS News story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/mindset-ai-raises-1-65-million-in-funding