Today's SaaS Pulse
OpenAI acquires Ona to embed secure workspaces for autonomous AI agents
OpenAI announced the acquisition of Ona, a 79‑person cloud development environment provider, to embed secure, persistent workspaces for autonomous AI agents. Ona’s platform has seen a 13‑fold rise in weekly agent sessions across banks, pharma firms, and sovereign wealth funds. Analysts estimate the deal value between $450 million and $500 million.
Also developing:
By the numbers: NinjaOne raises $400M Series C extension
Why Egnyte Keeps Hiring Junior Engineers Despite the Rise of AI Coding Tools
Egnyte, a $1.5 billion cloud content governance firm, has deployed AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, Augment and Gemini CLI across its 350‑plus developer workforce. Despite the automation hype, the company continues hiring junior engineers, using AI to accelerate onboarding, code comprehension and testing. AI‑generated pull‑request summaries and unit‑test scaffolding speed development, but all changes still require human review and security validation. Egnyte views AI as an infrastructure layer that shortens the junior‑to‑senior trajectory while preserving human judgment.
Testing Daily Signals to Boost Operator Decision Speed
For 11 years, I’ve sent a weekly newsletter. Five hundred seventy-two issues built around links people consistently tell me they actually read. That cadence works. I’m keeping it. But frequency isn’t the same thing as usefulness. A lot of operator...
ARR Numbers Mislead when Definitions Are Vague
Most ARR disclosures are technically correct — and still wildly misleading. After reviewing hundreds of public tech company ARR definitions and calculations, one thing became clear: 👉 The problem isn’t the ARR number 👉 It’s how companies define, calculate, and...
Commvault Launches Unified Data Vault – Giving Cloud Developers an Easy and Unified Way to Bring Resilience to S3 Data
Commvault introduced Cloud Unified Data Vault, a cloud‑native service that adds Commvault‑managed, S3‑compatible endpoints to protect data written via the S3 protocol. The solution delivers air‑gapped, immutable protection—encryption, deduplication, and policy‑driven retention—without requiring agents or custom scripts. It targets developers...
MIT Just Solved AI’s Memory Problem (And It’s Brilliantly Simple)
MIT researchers introduced the Recursive Language Model (RLM), a novel approach that treats large texts as a searchable environment rather than feeding them directly into a neural network. By querying only relevant chunks, RLMs can process inputs up to 100...
1Password Launches Unified Access as a One-Stop Shop for Managing Company Credentials – Say Goodbye to Shadow IT and SaaS...
1Password announced Unified Access, a new feature in its Extended Access Management suite that combines the Enterprise Password Manager and SaaS Manager. The solution lets IT discover, control and audit both SSO and non‑SSO credentials from a single dashboard, reducing...
Your Accessibility Strategy Is Missing a Product Manager
Software teams still treat accessibility as technical debt, resulting in widespread non‑compliance—only 54% of firms meet WCAG 2.2 and 95% of home pages contain errors. The article proposes an Accessibility Product Manager who owns accessibility from strategy through delivery, turning it...
Profit Focus and Strong Team Fuel Founder Happiness
I’ve talked to over 20 founders the past 4 weeks and every one of them is miserable. They want me to be miserable too … but I’m NOT. 11 years in, I’m more excited than ever. Here’s the top 5...
Planview Appoints Matt Zilli as Chief Executive Officer
Planview announced Matt Zilli as its new chief executive officer, succeeding Razat Gaurav who will join the board. Zilli, previously Planview’s President of Field Operations, brings experience as former Clarizen CEO and a key architect of Marketo’s growth to a...
Ramp Adds Developer Tools to Platform With AI Coding Assistant
Ramp introduced Ramp Inspect, an AI‑powered coding assistant integrated into its spend‑management platform. The cloud‑hosted tool writes, tests, and visually verifies code, offering instant virtual‑machine environments without local setup. Ramp open‑sourced the Inspect blueprint, enabling other firms to build similar...
AI Destroys Per-Seat CRM Pricing, Shifts to Outcomes
The "per seat" business model is officially dead for CRMs. For the last 20 years, the logic of SaaS pricing was simple. You build a database, and you charge companies for every human who logs in to update it. The...
Three Hours Coaching Boosts Sales Attainment Above 100%
The data is clear: teams receiving 3+ hours of coaching per rep per month consistently outperform (thanks Gartner for the analysis). But most teams never get out of reactive mode. “I wish I had more time to coach my reps....
The B2B SaaS Growth System That Scales From $3M → $30M+ ARR
The post outlines a repeatable B2B SaaS growth system that moves companies from $3 M to $30 M+ ARR by creating omnipresent brand exposure. It starts with a single ABM list that feeds ads, outbound, and LinkedIn, then adds a weekly high‑quality...
DeepSeek’s Conditional Memory Fixes Silent LLM Waste: GPU Cycles Lost to Static Lookups
DeepSeek introduced Engram, a conditional memory module that separates static pattern retrieval from dynamic reasoning in large language models. By allocating roughly 25% of sparse capacity to memory and 75% to computation, the system achieves O(1) lookups via hash tables...
AI Browsers Are Creating a New Governance Gap
AI‑enhanced browsers are embedding large‑language‑model capabilities directly into everyday workflows, turning the browser into an invisible assistant. This shift creates a new form of shadow AI that bypasses traditional IT detection because interactions appear as ordinary browsing. Employees increasingly rely...
Focus on Product-Market Fit, Buyers Come Naturally
“Businesses get bought, not sold.” - A random private equity fund bossman. I sold Robly in 2021, and I didn't go looking for a buyer. Robly was a grind. Only got to $3M ARR. Tiny company in a super-saturated space (didn't have...
Your Day Job Can Teach 11 Entrepreneurial Lessons
Some of the best founder training happens in your 9 to 5 if you’re curious enough to notice. In episode 815, I share 11 unexpected lessons a day job can teach you about entrepreneurship. Listen here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gfJNG6qV
OneDrive Backup Just Got a Massive Change for the Better - How It Works Now
Microsoft’s Windows 11 25H2 update automatically enables OneDrive Backup on fresh installations, moving Documents, Pictures and Desktop folders into the OneDrive directory while keeping local copies. The change is silent during the out‑of‑box experience, offering cloud sync without explicit user consent....
Customer Research Sells; Product Research Builds
I'm noticing confusion in b2b around customer research - we think we're doing customer research ( ✅ ) but in reality it's usually just product research 🙈 (to improve the product) Product research asks: "How do we improve our features?"...
Apple Creator Studio
Apple introduced Apple Creator Studio, a subscription bundle that unites Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage and AI‑enhanced features for Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and future Freeform. The suite launches on Jan 28, 2026, priced at $12.99 per...
Upstream Partners with Škoda to Strengthen Connected Vehicle Cybersecurity
Upstream Security announced a strategic partnership with Škoda Auto to deploy its unified cybersecurity platform across the automaker’s connected‑vehicle, digital services and supply‑chain ecosystem. The solution consolidates threat intelligence, risk signals and compliance data into a single workspace, improving visibility,...
Wasabi’s Cloud Storage Service Gets $70M Funding Boost
Wasabi Technologies raised $70 million in equity financing, valuing the Boston‑based cloud storage provider at $1.8 billion and pushing total capital above $600 million. The oversubscribed round, led by L2 Point Management and joined by Pure Storage, will fund global expansion, AI‑focused product...
Proton Updates Its Lumo AI Tool with New Projects Feature
Proton has rolled out Lumo 1.3, the latest version of its privacy‑first AI assistant, introducing a new "Projects" feature. Projects provide an encrypted workspace that bundles chats, files and instructions around a specific topic, syncing seamlessly across devices. The feature integrates...
Tools for Fast Search-Query Analysis
Ann Smarty highlights three Chrome extensions that streamline Google Search Console query analysis. Query Scout overlays page‑level query data and offers a $29 upgrade with pre‑built intent filters. Find Real Prompts extracts longer, AI‑style queries and can feed them to ChatGPT for...
Acronis Launches Archival Storage to Give MSPs Long-Term, Compliant Data Retention
Acronis International launched Archival Storage, a compliance‑focused, long‑term data retention service aimed at managed service providers (MSPs) and their SMB customers. The solution uses AWS S3‑compatible object storage, offering millisecond retrieval, 11×9 durability and 99.5% availability, while eliminating egress and...
Salesforce Rolls Out New Slackbot AI Agent as It Battles Microsoft and Google in Workplace AI
Salesforce launched a rebuilt Slackbot AI agent for Business+ and Enterprise+ customers, powered by Anthropic’s Claude large language model and integrated with Salesforce records, Google Drive, calendars, and Slack history. Internally, 80,000 employees adopted it rapidly, achieving 96% satisfaction and...
Slackbot Is an AI Agent Now
Salesforce has launched a generative‑AI version of Slackbot, now positioned as an autonomous AI agent for Business+ and Enterprise+ customers. The new Slackbot can retrieve data, draft emails, schedule meetings, and interact with external tools such as Microsoft Teams and...
36 | 2026 Software M&A Outlook: Valuations, Buyers, and What’s Changed
In this episode, Vista Point Advisors’ managing directors Mike Lyon and Jeff Koons dissect the 2025 software M&A landscape and project key shifts for 2026, focusing on buyer behavior, deal structures, and valuation trends—especially in vertical SaaS. They highlight that strategic...
"Slackbot Isn’t Just Another Copilot or AI Assistant - It’s the Front Door to the Agentic Enterprise" - Salesforce's New...
Salesforce has made Slackbot, its AI‑powered conversational assistant, generally available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers, expanding the Dreamforce 2025 preview into a production feature. Slackbot links Slack conversations with Salesforce records and third‑party apps such as Google Drive, enabling it...
Why Sakana AI’s Big Win Is a Big Deal for the Future of Enterprise Agents
Japanese startup Sakana AI’s coding agent ALE‑Agent captured first place in the AtCoder Heuristic Contest, outpacing more than 800 human competitors. The four‑hour run leveraged inference‑time scaling, generating, testing, and iterating hundreds of solutions. By introducing a "Virtual Power" concept,...
Show HN: SnackBase – Open-Source, GxP-Compliant Back End for Python Teams
SnackBase is an open‑source Python backend that provides instant CRUD APIs, built‑in GxP compliance, and immutable audit logs. It offers multi‑tenancy, row‑level security, and a comprehensive permissions engine, allowing SaaS developers to isolate data across organizations. The platform includes out‑of‑the‑box...
How Analytics Capability Has Quietly Reshaped IT Operations
In 2025 IT operations moved beyond monitoring tools to a mature analytics capability that governs insight creation, trust, and decision‑making. Organizations that built governance, decision rights, and analytical skills outperformed those that relied solely on advanced observability platforms. The shift...
Dataroid Raises $6.6M to Scale Its Analytics Platform Worldwide
Istanbul‑based Dataroid announced a $6.6 million pre‑Series A round led by FinAI Venture Capital, with participation from Tacirler’s Future Impact fund and Endeavor Catalyst. The funding follows a $2 million raise last year and will be used to boost AI‑driven analytics, accelerate...
Sisense Delivers Faster, Smarter Analytics with AI
Sisense announced a new AI‑powered analytics platform featuring a Managed Large Language Model, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, and an Intelligence assistant. The Managed LLM provides a ready‑to‑use foundation for generative analytics, while MCP securely connects external AI tools...
From 2025 to 2026: Listen to the Startups and VCs Behind the Year’s Biggest Tech Stories
Tech.eu released a special podcast that flips the usual journalist‑led format by inviting the founders and investors behind 2025’s most‑read stories to discuss the year’s defining moments. Guests included TEKEVER’s CEO, Cherry Ventures’ founding partner, Bolt’s president and other key...
European Tech in 2025: The Data, the Deals, and What Comes Next
Tech.eu’s 2025 Annual Report shows European tech investment reached €72 billion, the second‑strongest in three years, despite a 3.2 % dip from the 2024 peak. The UK stayed the top‑funded market, while fintech led sector performance with €11.1 billion raised across 397 rounds....
New Owners Re-Build Purplebricks with AI CRM After £1 Acquisition, Slashing Costs 70%
Purplebricks, the UK’s largest residential estate agency, was acquired for £1 by Strike Estate Agents and swiftly replaced its legacy Salesforce and custom .NET systems with Creatio, a low‑code AI‑enabled CRM. The new platform delivered a 35% rise in lead...
AI Emerging as Key Safety Driver as Commercial Fleets Cut Crash Rates by 73%
AI‑powered safety tools are reshaping commercial fleet operations, delivering a 73% crash‑rate reduction after 30 months of deployment. Multi‑camera AI systems eliminate blind‑spot risks, while dual‑facing dashcams flag distraction, drowsiness and phone use in real time. The Samsara Fleet Safety...
Birmingham Pauses Oracle Relaunch to Get Staff on Board
Birmingham City Council has delayed the relaunch of its Oracle Fusion ERP system until at least summer, citing the need for staff to adapt to standard processes. The 2022 go‑live disaster left the council unable to produce auditable accounts and...
LIV4 Raises €500k to Modernise Industrial Quality Management
LIV4, an Italian generative‑AI startup, closed a €500,000 pre‑seed round to accelerate its industrial quality‑management platform. The funding, led by seasoned business angels and supported by Intesa Sanpaolo, will expand the team, add product features, and speed validation in the...
Verna Raises $4M to Turn Nature Programs Into Measurable Action
UK‑based Verna has raised $4 million, led by Berlin’s NAP and Zurich’s Übermorgen, to scale its nature‑recovery software. The platform, already adopted by more than 3,000 users across 100 organisations, aggregates existing biodiversity data and applies AI to translate nature commitments...
NetBird Announces $10M Series A to Expand Open Source VPN Alternative
NetBird, a Berlin‑based open‑source Zero Trust networking platform, closed a $10 million Series A round led by Pace Capital with participation from Nauta Capital, InReach Ventures, and Antler. The company positions its product as a secure, cost‑effective alternative to traditional VPNs, emphasizing...
Bricks.sh Secures €1.6M Pre-Seed to Expand AI-Native Internal Tools
Bricks.sh, an AI‑native internal‑tool builder, announced a €1.6 million pre‑seed round led by Primo Capital, joined by Octopus First Cheque Fund, Eden Ventures and others. The company also launched its public beta, offering developers a way to auto‑generate admin panels by...
Klearly Secures €12M for Restaurant Payments System
Amsterdam‑based Klearly has closed a €12 million Series A round, bringing its total funding to €20 million. The round was led by PayPal Ventures with participation from Italian Founders Fund and existing backers. Klearly offers a hospitality‑focused payments layer that integrates with merchants’...
2026: AI Agents Transform Knowledge Work Through Scaffolding
The capability overhang right now in AI is pretty massive. Most of the world still thinks of AI as chatbots that will answer a question on demand but not yet do real work for them. Beyond coding, almost no knowledge work...
AI Wins by Replacing, Not Automating, Deterministic Workflows
Most companies claim they are becoming AI first. Almost none understand what that actually requires. The surprising truth: AI does not transform your business by automating existing workflows. It transforms it by replacing deterministic workflows entirely. I explore this with @hala_zeine, Chief Strategy...
Provenance Is the New Version Control
AI‑driven code synthesis is turning traditional version control on its head. When a component can be regenerated from a formal specification, the program text ceases to be the primary source of truth, and the reasons—requirements, constraints, and design decisions—become the...
Deep Product Knowledge Outweighs CEO Polish
For a long while, you probably aren't a great CEO But you know the customers The software The feature gaps The roadmap The competition How to sell it How to market it How to build it So maybe as flawed as you are You are still the best CEO
The Most In-Demand AI Services Businesses Will Pay For in 2026
In 2026 AI will be treated as core infrastructure rather than a novelty feature, with businesses paying for services that deliver measurable outcomes. The most lucrative services attach to high‑cost pain points such as time waste, revenue generation, risk mitigation,...