New Year, Fresh Exits: Startup Acquisitions Of Note

As the shutdown drags on, investors aren’t going to find returns on the public market. But on the private markets, the snapping up of startups continues. Here are just a few notable deals that have made it into the Crunchbase database so far this week.

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Campaign Monitor Acquires Two Startups

Campaign Monitor, an email management provider, has acquired two startups: Sailthru and Liveclicker. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

However, the two deals note a broader trend of continued consolidation in the email management and marketing automation space. Both Liveclicker and Sailthru help enterprises manage, customize, and send emails for a number of enterprise companies. Other startups in the space include Autopilot.

It would not be a surprise to see more deals like this happening. Email is playing an increasingly important part of many digital marketing strategies as social networks slowly tamp down the traffic tap. (It’s possible a trends piece on the market Crunchbase News should add to the editorial calendar. We’ll see!)

WorkJam And Peerio

Flexible work environments require flexible communication techniques, and a number of companies have emerged to bring digital office and communication management to the flexible work world.

In another acquisition for Canada, Montreal-based WorkJam, a digital workplace management startup, has acquired Peerio, a workplace communication company, for an undisclosed amount.

Peerio was founded in 2014 in Montreal and received $1.3 million in seed-stage funding from Canada-based early-stage investor, InnoStart Capital. The company specifically focuses on encrypted communication and file storage. Peerio essentially directly competed with Slack.

This is the first acquisition for WorkJam, which has raised a known total of $12 million from New York-based Lerer Hippeau. It is both acquiring the technology and assets and bringing the Peerio team on board. The platform will be incorporated into WorkJam’s suite of products aiming to increase workplace engagement.

Smartsheet Acquires Slope

You can make spreadsheets smart, but that doesn’t always mean it’s collaborative. Smartsheet, a public company, has acquired Slope, a startup that focused on helping companies “review and approve creative work,” according to its website.

The startup raised $2.6 million. There is no word on the acquisition price. In a press release, Smartsheet noted that “Slope’s intuitive content review and proofing functionality will let Smartsheet users provide feedback on images, videos, documents and other content, enabling a broad set of powerful use cases that drive collaboration and fit seamlessly into existing workflows.”

Correction: Slope raised $2.6 million, not $1.4 million as originally reported.

Illustration Credit: Li-Anne Dias