Billion Dollar Unicorns: Sprinklr Rolls up Social Media Management Software Before IPO

The Social Media Management Software (SMMS) market has been consolidating rapidly with companies like Oracle, Google, Salesforce, and Adobe making significant SMMS acquisitions in 2012. To compete, Billion Dollar Unicorn Sprinklr has been on an acquisition spree, rolling up seven SMMS startups in 18 months. >>>

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Will Oracle’s Cloud Business Take Off?

The worldwide SaaS enterprise applications market was worth $22.6 billion in 2013 and is expected by IDC to increase to $50.8 billion by 2018, representing a CAGR of 17.6% for the period. Overall applications market in 2013 was $135.9B. From 16.6% in 2013, SaaS is expected to account for 27.8% of the worldwide enterprise applications market. The cloud has been a key focus for Oracle for some time now. However, it is a tough market to crack with tough competition and low margins. Will Oracle be able to crack it?

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: VNG Grows While Remaining Focused on Vietnam

There aren’t many Southeast Asian countries who have managed to reach the Billion Dollar Unicorn Club. In fact, according to market reports, there are only two players in the region — Garena from Singapore and VNG from Vietnam.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Klarna Takes the Risk out of E-Commerce

According to a recent report by eMarketer, e-commerce revenues are projected to grow 12.4% annually to be worth $3.5 trillion by 2019. E-commerce is estimated to account for $1.672 trillion in sales this year, contributing to 7.3% of overall global retail sales. By 2019, e-commerce will account for 12.4% of total retail sales. Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Klarna is helping drive this growth by simplifying the process of purchasing for both buyers and sellers.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Pinterest Eyes E-Commerce

According to eMarketer, worldwide business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales are expected to reach $2.3 trillion by 2017. Billion Dollar Unicorn Club  member Pinterest is eyeing this market with its recent launch of Buyable Pins. This comes amid the rise of discovery-driven commerce apps such as Fancy, Wish, and Wanelo and the e-commerce plans of Facebook and Twitter. >>>

Chegg Expands into Online Education

Analyts expect the digital education market to quadruple in size to $450 billion over the next five years. Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) is moving away from its traditional textbook rental service to focus on this disruptive market. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: InsideSales.com Bootstraps First, Raises Money Later

Analysts estimate the sales acceleration technology market to be worth $12.8 billion. Billion Dollar Unicorn club member InsideSales.com is making big inroads in this market.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Coupang Raises the Banner for South Korea

According to a recent eMarketer market, the total retail e-commerce market in South Korea is estimated to grow 11% this year to $36.76 billion, making them the third largest e-commerce market in the Asia-Pacific region, after China and Japan. E-commerce is expected to account for nearly 10% of South Korea’s total retail market share. The South Korean market is expected to grow to $47.8 billion by the year 2018. Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Coupang is already making big strides in the region.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Box Struggles in its Public Avatar

I have repeatedly written about the VC funding frenzy that has taken companies with doubtful business models to lofty valuations and exorbitant amounts of funding. Driven by such valuations, it is little surprise then that on the public stock exchanges even Billion Dollar Unicorns have faltered. Cloud storage company Box is one such example. After continuing to struggle with the timing of an IPO, Box went public earlier this year. Since listing, their valuation has been declining and the stock continues to struggle to go past its list price.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Dianping is Thriving in China with its Local Reviews Business

It is not just in the US where local business review sites such as Care.com and Angie’s List have gained lofty valuations from VC funding while relying on a faulty business model. The phenomenon has spread internationally where companies are counting on crowdsourced local reviews to drive advertising and subscription revenues across their platform. One such company is China’s Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Dianping. But Dianping appears to be taking good measures to rework this business model into one that actually may work. >>>