Today's SaaS Pulse
Salesforce Launches AgentExchange, a Unified AI Marketplace with $50M Builder Fund
Salesforce has merged its three app and AI stores into a single AgentExchange marketplace, offering over 13,000 ready‑made apps, AI agents, and automation components. The platform features intent‑aware search, one‑click buying, and instant activation within Salesforce or Slack, and includes a $50 million builder fund to encourage partner development.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Loop raises $95M to scale its supply‑chain AI platform
Building a European Digital Stack: The Alternatives to US Big Tech You Should Know
Europe is mobilising a broad coalition of home‑grown firms to replace US big‑tech services across cloud, AI, collaboration and consumer tools. The European Commission’s recent open‑source consultation and Germany’s €23 million Sovereign Tech Fund signal a coordinated push for digital sovereignty. A curated list of alternatives—from Crypt.ee’s cloud to Mistral AI’s language models—illustrates the growing ecosystem ready to serve European users and regulators.
Profile: The Danish Fintech Boss Who Says “No” A Lot
Flatpay’s CEO Sander Janca‑Jensen champions a disciplined "no" culture, refusing many opportunities to keep the Danish payment unicorn focused. The company hit unicorn status last year after a $170 million round that valued it at $1.7 billion, and now serves about 70,000...
RXNT Leads 2026 Gartner Digital Markets Across Five Categories
RXNT, a Maryland‑based ambulatory health‑tech firm, has been named a 2026 Gartner Digital Markets Leader, earning Shortlist and FrontRunner honors in five categories: Medical Billing, Practice Management, EMR, Mental Health, and Physical Therapy. The awards reflect both breadth—covering 23 Gartner...
ITradeNetwork Collaborates with Google Cloud to Bring Gemini Enterprise and AI Agents to Food and Beverage Supply Chains
iTradeNetwork, the largest North American food and beverage trading network, announced a partnership with Google Cloud to embed Gemini Enterprise and Vertex AI agents into its Cerena Solution Suite. The integration will automate manual workflows such as order processing, enrich...
UK CFOs Facing ‘Automation Deficit’ as Fragmented Systems Stall Progress
Corpay’s new research of 150 UK CFOs uncovers an "automation deficit" – while 99% plan to automate finance by 2025, fragmented legacy systems stall progress. Integration challenges top the list, cited by 47% of respondents, followed by resistance to change...
SutiCLM Redefines Contract Management With AI-Powered Automation and Intelligence
SutiSoft launched SutiCLM, an AI‑driven contract lifecycle management platform that automates drafting, negotiation, approval, and storage. The solution uses generative summarization, clause suggestions, risk detection, and conversational AI to cut cycle times and lower compliance risk. Executives claim the tool...
Agileday Raises €6.4M to Scale AI Solutions for Professional Services
Finland‑based Agileday closed a €6.4 million Series A round, led by Newion and joined by Specialist VC, Vendep Capital, and Business Finland. The startup offers a people‑focused professional services automation (PSA) platform that merges talent management, resource allocation, timesheets and project financials...
Iboss Unveils AI-Powered SSPM Capability to Reduce SaaS Risk
iboss introduced an AI‑powered SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) capability within its Zero Trust SASE platform. The solution connects to SaaS apps via native APIs, continuously scanning configurations, permissions and data exposure. AI analysis prioritizes misconfigurations and risky sharing, presenting...
How UK Accounting Firms Can Prepare for Busy Season With Automated Workflows
UK accounting firms are turning to workflow automation to tame the chaos of busy season. By automating client intake, document collection, and deadline alerts, firms reduce repetitive admin tasks and gain real‑time visibility into work progress. Smaller practices can adopt...
GitLab Spurs 12.8% Rally, SaaS Index Up 3.
📊 https://t.co/D1x4RaX5t7 Market Pulse - Thu, Jan 22 The https://t.co/D1x4RaX5t7 Index delivered a strong performance on January 22, 2026, with an average gain of 3.47% as 23 out of 25 stocks advanced. GitLab led the rally with a remarkable 12.82% surge,...
AI Agents: Cost‑Effective Workers Who Never Quit
"Why did we go all-in on AI Agents?" with @kylecnorton CRO @kylecnorton "I just got tired of paying folks six-figures, letting them work from home with plenty of agency ... and still quitting. The AI Agents aren't perfect. But they...
Epic and Google Have a Secret $800 Million Unreal Engine and Services Deal
A federal judge disclosed an undisclosed six‑year, $800 million partnership between Epic Games and Google focused on Unreal Engine services and joint marketing. The agreement, kept largely confidential, involves Epic paying Google for cloud and AI services rather than co‑creating a...
Cracking B2B AI Pricing: Experts Share Proven Models
How do you price AI features in B2B? Per seat? Per outcome? Usage-based? Founders are still figuring this out in real-time. At SaaStr AI 2026, we're bringing together the ones who've cracked it. May 12-14. SF Bay https://t.co/4l6Rm5He3B
Inferact Launches with $150M in Funding to Commercialize vLLM
Inferact Inc. launched with a $150 million seed round that values the startup at $800 million. The company will commercialize the open‑source vLLM inference engine, known for its PagedAttention memory‑saving technique and quantization. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed and Databricks’ VC arm,...
Everyone Can Build AI Tools to Reclaim Time
🎤 Talk recap: How VCs & Teams Can Leverage AI and Automation I shared how AI can be used not in theory, not as hype — but as everyday leverage ⚙️ 📑 Slides from my talk at AI Skills’2026 Virtual...
Scaling PostgreSQL to Power 800M ChatGPT Users
OpenAI scaled a single‑primary Azure PostgreSQL flexible server to serve 800 million ChatGPT users, leveraging nearly 50 read‑replicas across global regions. By combining aggressive query tuning, connection pooling with PgBouncer, and off‑loading write‑heavy workloads to sharded Cosmos DB, the platform now handles...
The ‘App’ Era Is Dying — Welcome to the ‘Agent’ Era
The article declares the end of the traditional app era, ushering in an “Instruct/Verify” era where users command AI agents to perform tasks. It outlines two parallel shifts – an interface shift turning super‑apps into conversational operating systems, and a...
Growth Trumps Efficiency in AI Era IPOs
A tough truth: getting more efficient, getting profitable, might have been necessary the past few years for many. But it also got you … nowhere. The markets still reward growth far more than efficiency. You do need both now when...
20VC X SaaStr Are Back: If Figma Isn’t Good Enough, What Hope Is There? Plus OpenAI Ads, Elon Vs. Sam,...
The 20VC × SaaStr episode argues that public SaaS isn’t dying, it’s merely being sorted by growth and AI tailwinds. Companies like Figma still command high multiples, but any slowdown triggers steep valuation cuts. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s nascent ad business could unlock $25 billion...
Try Pulse: AI‑Curated Tech News Beta Launch
Keeping track of AI and SaaS news and deals can be challenging. That's why we developed Pulse, our AI-curated technology news platform. We are seeking beta feedback this week before we launch widely. Please create a free account and share...
How to Implement EOS in SaaS: How SaaS Founders Actually Make the Entrepreneurial Operating System Work (and Where It Breaks)
The post demystifies EOS for SaaS founders, emphasizing it as a disciplined operating rhythm rather than a quick‑fix framework. It outlines three real‑world adoption styles—self‑implementation, fully facilitated, and a hybrid blend—and highlights the weekly Level 10 meeting as the system’s core....
Hallway Chats, Not Panels: Spryng Matches Marketers
I've attended 89 marketing conferences over the years. Almost all of them had the same problem. The best conversations happened in the hallway. At the bar. Never during the actual sessions. So I built Spryng differently. We hand-match attendees before the event. Similar...
FreeAgent and Fathom Partner to Help SMEs Better Manage Finances
UK accounting software provider FreeAgent has announced a partnership with Australian reporting platform Fathom, integrating real‑time profit‑and‑loss reporting, cash‑flow forecasting and KPI dashboards into its ecosystem. The automatic data sync enables small‑business owners and their accountants to generate interactive management...
EBay Bans Illicit Automated Shopping Amid Rapid Rise of AI Agents
eBay has revised its User Agreement to expressly forbid third‑party “buy‑for‑me” agents and large‑language‑model (LLM) chatbots from placing orders on its platform without explicit permission. The new clause, effective February 20 2026, expands the previous ban on generic bots to specifically target...
Scaling International GTM for B2B SaaS eCommerce Products
The episode outlines how B2B SaaS eCommerce firms can scale internationally by first establishing a stable global positioning spine and then tailoring emphasis to regional buyer priorities. It stresses redefining the ideal customer profile with regional filters and using inbound...
Substack Launches a TV App
Substack announced a beta TV app for Apple TV and Google TV, letting subscribers watch video posts and livestreams directly on their living‑room screens. The app features a TikTok‑style “For You” row that surfaces creator videos and tailors recommendations. Access aligns with...
Leadership Risk: Balancing Fast Innovation with Slow Adoption
Why does innovation move fast while adoption crawls? Because transformation forces leaders to redirect capital, talent, and attention away from what still works toward what is not yet proven. That tension defines the messy middle. This conversation with Tina Vatanka...
Workday CEO Calls Narrative That AI Is Killing Software 'Overblown'
Workday chief executive Carl Eschenbach told CNBC from Davos that the idea AI is destroying software businesses is "overblown" and outright false. He framed artificial intelligence as a tailwind, not a headwind, for Workday’s cloud‑based offerings. The comment comes as...
Artie Announces $12M Series A Funding Round
Artie, a fully managed real‑time data streaming platform, announced a $12 million Series A financing on Jan. 22, 2026. The round was led by Dalton Caldwell of Standard Capital and included participation from Y Combinator, Pathlight Ventures, and prominent angels such as Dropbox co‑founder...
Mews Raises $300M Series D Round
Hospitality‑tech platform Mews announced a $300 million Series D round, valuing the company at $2.5 billion. The round was led by EQT Growth with new investors Atomico and HarbourVest Partners, alongside existing backers Kinnevik, Battery Ventures and Tiger Global. Mews reported a 55 % increase...
UAE Group Pensions: Designing Digital-First Savings
Insurers, employers, and technology providers in the UAE are transitioning from discussion to deployment of digital‑first group pension programmes as recent gratuity reforms shift end‑of‑service benefits toward funded pensions. Kidbrooke’s analysis shows that flexibility, modularity and user‑friendly design are now...
Honest Board Management Beats Optimistic Theater
Here are a few take-aways from the early days of scaling at Okta with their co-founder, Frederic Kerrest . 1. Managing the board: Demonstrated control over the business versus optimistic theater Early in my career, I thought my job with...
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SaasRise CEO Mastermind Recaps for the Week of Jan 19 - 22, 2026
The SaaSRise weekly mastermind for Jan 19‑22, 2026 delivered a rapid‑fire set of recommendations for growth‑stage SaaS founders. Key themes included scaling outbound efforts with selective AI‑driven personalization, streamlining leadership hires and EOS adoption, and leveraging AI coding tools to accelerate development....
AnswerThis (YC F25) Is Hiring
AnswerThis, a Y Combinator‑backed AI agent orchestration startup, has reached $1 million ARR in just eight months and serves over 200,000 daily users from institutions like Stanford and MIT. The company is building a system of record for scientists that integrates...
AI Coding & AI Design in 2026: How to Re-Build Your Existing SaaS App with AI
Founders are rebuilding SaaS platforms with AI coding tools like Claude Code, slashing months‑long rewrites to weeks or days. The author’s Pulse.bot project demonstrates a production‑grade app built almost entirely by AI with minimal human oversight. Claude Code excels at system‑level refactoring,...
Adoption Speed, Not Code, Is New Development Bottleneck
Here’s what often gets missed when people think about AI coding. The code may now be free, but the learnings of what to build (and what to build *next*) and how to build it are bottlenecked by the same set...
Autodesk To Cut 1,000 Jobs
Autodesk announced it will cut approximately 1,000 jobs, about 7% of its global workforce, as the final stage of a multi‑year restructuring. The layoffs focus primarily on customer‑facing sales roles, reflecting a shift toward a more digital, data‑driven selling model....
AI-Native B2B Apps Are Redefining the Software Landscape
Will B2B software survive the AI era? The last platform shift, on-prem to cloud, created a wave of new category winners. Salesforce, Workday, NetSuite, HubSpot, and GitHub were all native-cloud companies. But the signals are different this time. Foundational models...
Pave Finance Integrates with Fidelity to Automate RIA Workflows
Pave Finance announced a direct integration with Fidelity, enabling registered investment advisors to link client accounts to Pave’s platform without moving assets. The connection automates portfolio construction, ongoing management and trade execution, leveraging Pave’s ten‑year‑tested Asset Intelligence Layer. Advisors can...
Scale Expertise with Tools, Not Years of Training
Stop trying to train your team into experts. Build tools that make them experts faster. One of the ListKit cofounders, Christian , is an absolute cold email genius. Took him 4+ years to get there. That expertise is incredibly valuable....
Critical Appsmith Flaw Enables Account Takeovers
A critical authentication flaw (CVE‑2026‑22794) was discovered in Appsmith’s low‑code platform. The vulnerability stems from the password‑reset endpoint trusting the client‑supplied Origin header, allowing attackers to craft malicious reset links and capture tokens. Exploitation enables full account takeover, including admin...
Claude Was Down for Many – Here's Everything We Know
Anthropic’s Claude chatbot experienced a service disruption on January 22 2026, lasting just over an hour. User reports on Down Detector peaked at more than 2,400 within minutes, with both desktop and mobile interfaces displaying a “This isn’t working right now” error....
SMBs Trade Higher Volume for Lower NRR than Enterprises
In theory, SMB > Enterprise More customers, much faster sales cycles, faster PLG and viral cycles But even 100% NRR is tough to hit with SMBs, While 120%-140% common in Enterprise Most SMB SaaS goes at least bit enterprise or at least into more...
The ROI Blueprint: Turning AI and Automation Into Business Value
AI initiatives are moving from pilot to production, yet only one in five firms achieve expected outcomes, prompting analysts to warn that up to 30% of generative‑AI projects may be abandoned this year. Executives are urged to redefine ROI, focusing...
Railway Raises $100M in Series B Funding
Railway, a San Francisco‑based cloud platform that streamlines developer workflows, announced a $100 million Series B round. The financing was led by TQ Ventures with participation from FPV Ventures, Redpoint, Unusual Ventures and other existing backers. Railway plans to deploy the capital...
Most Series A Founders Overestimate Their $50M Worth
I talk to delusional Series A founders every day. I now just send them this post. If your company does under $10m ARR, burns over $200k/mo and has low Gross Retention, you are not worth $50-100m dollars to ANYONE despite...
UCP Proxy Connects Any E‑commerce System to Shopping Agents
We build UCP Proxy to take any ecommerce system and expose it via UCP to shopping agents. Make commerce better for everyone.
Exclusive: Cambio Lands $18M At $100M Valuation For AI-Powered Commercial Real Estate Software
Cambio, an AI‑powered commercial real‑estate SaaS startup, closed an $18 million Series A round at a $100 million post‑money valuation. The round was led by Maverick Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Adverb and angels from OpenAI, Anthropic and Notion. Founded in 2022, Cambio...