![]() “Fundraising is tough out there,” concurs Brett Martin, Kumospace’s cofounder. Kumospace, a New York-based provider of ‘virtual office’ software, succeeded in raising USD 21m Series A this summer led by Lightspeed. “You cannot go public right now, at least not until the first quarter of 2023, so you have to figure out how you’re going to make it through the rest of the year,” says CenterCap’s Smith. The slump in public-company valuations is affecting venture-backed firms too. Any company that suffers such a drop is a take-private target, says Andereck. Shares of Asana, Atlassian and Zoom are roughly 50% to 90% below their 52-week highs. ![]() The downtrodden valuations of marquee work-collaboration software companies provide another opportunity. “Next-gen products with elements of AI, elements of no-code or low-code, will be front and center for large strategics,” says Andereck. Figma and Formstack are leaders in that field, he notes. The latter allows regular employees to design workflow tools without software developers. Examples include artificial intelligence and low-code/no-code software. ![]() Opportunities aheadĬutting-edge technologies that improve efficiency of digital work will be attractive to acquirors, reckons Andereck. “Purpose-built software is coming for every industry,” adds Lindsey Wendler, a Dallas-based managing director with Dresner Partners. “The remote-work concept is here to stay," says Deborah Smith, co-founder of The CenterCap Group.Ĭompanies have had to upgrade their technology so employees can operate in a hybrid world of in-office and remote work. In May, it acquired Solvvy, a conversational AI chatbot company.Īdoption of collaborative technologies accelerated during the pandemic, when companies were forced to deal with disparate work forces. Zoom offers a prime example: In February, it announced a contact-center product it had built, having failed in its bid for Five9 . ![]() Workflow software, provided by companies such as Asana , Smartsheet and Citrix’s Wrike, helps increase a team’s productivity with digital tools.Ī convergence between unified communications, contact-center solutions, and workflow software is taking place, notes Andereck. Unified-communications companies such as Zoom Video Communications and BlueJeans – acquired by Verizon Communications in 2020 – provide the software and infrastructure to enable engagement among teams, including video conferencing and messaging. Work-collaboration technology can broadly be split into two categories: unified communications and workflow. ![]() “Large strategics are looking to expand their value proposition and their end customers. “We’ve never been as busy as we are right now,” says Will Andereck, a managing director at Union Square Advisors, of the current dealmaking environment. That compares with 126 deals totaling USD 10.6bn in 2021 and 91 transactions worth USD 35.5bn in 2020, when Salesforce splashed USD 28bn on messaging firm Slack Technologies. As more Americans return to the office and pandemic fears recede, the technology aimed at making remote and hybrid work possible has never been more in demand.Ĭapital raising and M&A involving North American work-collaboration software companies reached USD 19.2bn across 54 deals in the year to date, led by Vista Equity’s USD 16.6bn buyout of digital-workspace company Citrix Systems in January. ![]()
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