A Unicorn Amid Layoffs? How Are Startups Managing?

Going by those lines and while scrolling through business news, I was particularly awestruck by the lines of an international publication that said that “startups are shutting businesses and laying off people faster than you can put on a mask.” However, amid such difficulties, Bengaluru-based and San Francisco headquartered SaaS startup Postman showed some bullishness in terms of figures when they managed to raise USD$ 150 million at a US$2 billion valuation. If calculated correctly, this would mean a 6X jump in less than a year.

Postman, a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup is the newest member to join the unicorn club, raising funds from US-based Insight Partners. It took Postman almost 6 years to fetch the prized billion-dollar billing, which is so far the fastest in the SaaS space. For other players in the space like Freshworks, Icertis and Druva, it took eight, 10 and 11 years respectively. The target audience for Postman are the coders mostly, that create, test, and modify application programme interface (APIs). This is particularly helpful in a cloud driver era, at a time when more and more companies have been saving and accessing data on the cloud, rather than opting for servers and hardware. 

It’s worth noting that in today’s times, payments, communication and collaborations are all API-centric. That is to say that something as basic as checking your weather data would be fetched by API. 

How Is Postman Using API?

It’s a digital world, where people interact with apps that has aggravated all the way more with the advent of the pandemic. It’s noted that previously, many times coders in the early days would prefer APIs as a last resort. However, Postman believes that an API first approach is capable of building much powerful and effective APIs. 

Is This Is An Indication Of A New Dawn For SaaS Startups?

Valuation are an intrinsic part of businesses, and startups are no different. In fact, it’s a well know fact that most investors price valuation more than anything else. In this regard, Postman’s valuation needs to be taken into account, especially in the context of a post-COVID world. With the pandemic coaxing and urging people to choose remote working, which in turn would push the demand for digital services even more. A common trend has been noticed that most global SaaS companies have succeeded in expanding to multiple countries quite early on, containing recurring revenue and at the same time not burning too much cash for their growth.

There is undoubtedly some ray of hope in this, specifically in the startup world where things seem really uncertain. Just as mentioned in the previous paragraphs, it would be difficult to ascertain as to what shape would this sector take in a post COVID world, till then the SaaS players might heave a sigh of relief.