SaaS 1000, the industry’s official ranking of the world’s fastest growing SaaS companies, has this week released the 2Q’18 edition of the list. Using a proprietary algorithm that includes hiring trends, growth indicators and number of employees (among other indicators), the list highlights top SaaS companies worldwide, from smaller startups to the largest SaaS businesses. While the list is updated quarterly, companies must have between 40 and 1000 employees in order to rank. CultureIQ was named the number one fastest-growing SaaS company on the 2Q’18 list.
In SaaS M&A news, Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Lobe, a startup that facilitates the creation of A.I. apps with no user-coding required for deployment. Based in San Francisco, Lobe is the most recent in a string of A.I. companies Microsoft has acquired in the past few years as part of their strategy to further build A.I. functionalities. While the terms of the deal were not made public, Lobe will continue to operate as a standalone product within the Microsoft umbrella.
The world of digital policy saw the European Union pass a copyright law that could lead to tech giants being forced to filter internet content potentially covered by copyright. The EU’s revamped directive, which sought to extend the bloc’s copyright laws into the 21st century, was passed in Strasbourg on Wednesday with 438 votes in favor, 226 against and 39 abstentions. While the goal of the legislation is to avoid the misuse of copyrighted content, critics worry that it might instead lead to censorship and stifled freedoms for publishers to post content on the internet.
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In events news, Founder Thomas Smale will be speaking at MerchWorld on September 27-28 in Seattle, where he will cover the ins-and-outs of what it entails to sell a MerchbyAmazon business. Click here to register for the event, or reply to this email to set up a meeting if you will be in the area!
Continue reading below for more on SaaS 1000, Microsoft’s acquisition of Lobe and the new copyright policy passed in the EU.
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In The News…
SaaS 1000 Releases Q2’18 List
The latest list of the world’s fastest growing SaaS companies has been released for Q2 of 2018.
SaaS 1000 is a definitive list that uses a proprietary algorithm to rank the world’s top SaaS companies by quarterly growth rate. The quarterly SaaS 1000 list is an elite group of companies, made up of high-achieving, ambitious SaaS businesses of a caliber unparalleled by most. Many of the SaaS companies topping the SaaS 1000 list have gone on to achieve international recognition for excellence in the industry. Over the years, SaaS 1000 honorees have included companies such as Klaviyo, FloQast, Exponea, Iterable and CB Insights. FE is excited to partner with the SaaS 1000 community to bring the global leaders in enterprise and B2C software-as-a-service business growth to light. CEO Ismael Wrixen commented, “FE is thrilled to be able to share the excellence achieved by the companies which made it to the SaaS 1000 list. Out of the tens of thousands of companies analyzed, only a small percentage achieved the growth these companies did, and they deserve recognition for their continued accomplishments.”.
SaaS 1000 companies’ rankings are updated quarterly to reflect the most up-to-date global leaders in SaaS growth.
Microsoft Acquires Lobe
Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Lobe, and A.I. company, in a deal of an undisclosed amount.
Based in San Francisco, the startup seeks to facilitate the training and deployment of artificial intelligence models. A recent string of A.I. acquisitions by Microsoft, including Bonsai this year and Maluuba last year, has demonstrated Microsoft’s intent to bolster their A.I. technology in-house. Lobe will continue to operate as a standalone system, having been led by CEO Adam Menges, formerly a machine learning engineer and product manager at Apple. Though the startup lacks notable customers, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott wrote in a blog post, “We look forward to continuing the great work by Lobe in putting AI development into the hands of non-engineers and non-experts.”
Lobe’s core service provides an online platform for creating models with no user coding required, and is available in beta.
EU Lawmakers Pass Controversial Copyright Law
European parliamentarians have passed a controversial overhaul of copyright law that could force tech giants to install filters that prevent copyright-protected content from being uploaded.
Lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, voted on Wednesday in favor of the European Union’s revamped directive, which is aimed at bringing the bloc’s rules on copyright into the 21st century. The copyright reform was passed with 438 votes in favor, 226 against and 39 abstentions. But critics say such a law would normalize censorship and restrict internet freedom, preventing users from being able to post content ranging from memes to links to articles from news outlets. The controversy mainly surrounds two sections of the law — Articles 11 and 13. Article 11 would grant press publications copyright over the sharing of their content online, meaning they would be able to charge services like Google News for aggregating their stories. Critics have dubbed this as an effective “link tax,” but proponents say hyperlinks will be exempt. Meanwhile, Article 13 calls for “effective content recognition” technology to filter out copyright-protected content.
Detractors hold that this part of the law could threaten social media users’ ability to share anything from internet memes to snippets of music and film.