Business Liquidity

Morning Report: SaaS Stocks Test Records, Boding Well For Private-Market Analogs

Morning Report: Forget the crypto market and apparel, let’s talk about SaaS.

It’s a pretty good time to be a public SaaS company. In fact, for some public SaaS shops, it’s just about the best time in a year, if not ever.

Many SaaS stocks are trading near their 52-week highs, putting them up against record price levels. That improves their revenue multiples and other vital statistics, which can trickle backwards into private markets, helping yet-private companies defend their valuations.

But, before we get to that, here are some numbers (via Google Finance):

  • Box: 0.16 percent off 52-week highs.
  • Square: 0.23 percent off 52-week highs.
  • Workday: 1.76 percent off 52-week highs.
  • New Relic: 3.69 percent off 52-week highs.
  • Shopify: 5.6 percent off 52-week highs.
  • Hubspot: 6.15 percent off 52-week highs.

The list continues. Why did we include New Relic, Shopify, and Hubspot when they are a bit further off their year’s highs? Because they are off from highs after strong runs. Shopify, to pick one example, is 242.9 percent off its 52 week low, putting its minor retrenchment into better focus.

And this gives us a new scorecard to enjoy. Public comps for private companies help investors decide what a company may be worth at the point of liquidity, like an IPO. If public comps do well, private companies can pick up tailwind.

So private SasaS startups, here are Box’s new numbers. If you are private, keep in mind that you traditionally should be valued at a discount to these figures, since your stock is less liquid than a glacier:

From the Crunchbase Daily:

Unity Technologies raises $400M

  • Unity Technologies, a provider of development tools for video game creators, has raised $400 million in fresh funding from the private equity firm Silver Lake. A big chunk of the investment will go toward buying shares of longtime employees and early investors. The new round reportedly values the 13-year-old, San Francisco-based company at $2.6 billion.

Teespring lays off staff amid restructuring

  • Teespring, the full-service marketplace for tee shirts, is beginning to fray. Sources told Crunchbase News that the company underwent steep layoffs over the past few weeks, leaving a skeleton crew of twenty to thirty people at its main office. The company has raised nearly $57 million in venture capital to date from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and others.

Mideast etailer Namshi sells stake for $151M

  • Middle Eastern brick-and-mortar retail giant Emaar Malls is acquiring a 51 percent stake in Namshi, a Dubai-based online fashion retailer, for $151 million. Namshi was previously wholly-owned by Berlin-based e-commerce incubator Rocket Internet.

Smartsheet closes on $52M

  • Smartsheet, provider of a platform for managing and automating collaborative work, announced that it raised $52 million in a Series F funding round led by existing investor Insight Venture Partners.

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

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