As the largest SaaS ecosystem in the world, over 4,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) supply software products connected to Salesforce, worth $29 billion a year in 2021, and predicted to grow to $68 billion in 2026. While there is growth, it takes a specific set of skills, knowledge, and experience in the Salesforce ecosystem to unlock this potential.
Based out of London, Unaric is building the world’s leading Salesforce product suite by buying, scaling, and consolidating Salesforce-focused Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).
$35M investment round
The London startup has raised $35 million in a debt and equity seed round from LocalGlobe, which backed Orbital Witness and 8fig, Concentric, FJ Labs, and Atempo Growth. Leading angel investors from the ecosystem, such as OwnBackup founder Sam Gutmann, SaaS Guru Dave Kellogg, and Hotjar founder Johan Malmberg, also participated in the round.
Other notable private investors joining the round include Daniel Waterhouse, General Partner at Balderton Capital; Sujay Tyle, co-founder of unicorns Frontier Car Group & Merama; Philipp Triebel, co-founder Sellerx; Patrick Aisher serial SaaS entrepreneur & founder of Mountain Labs and German football Star Mario Gotze.
Follows a unique acquisition approach
As part of the fundraising announcement, Unaric is also announcing its first deal – the acquisition of Salesbolt, a company with over 1000 customers. This is the first portfolio company among the company’s plans to buy 10-15 companies a year. Notably, Unaric is aiming to acquire 30-40 companies in the next three years.
James Gasteen, co-founder and CEO, said: “We believe that by building suites of products that match more closely the needs of enterprises, we can help companies significantly increase their sales, scale their businesses, and sell to corporate buyers who would not normally buy from individual vendors. When software businesses become part of Unaric we can take all the admin off the founders’ plate and accelerate their growth channels, so that they can carry on building a great technical product.”
Peter Lindholm, co-founder and Chair, said: “We’ve put together a team of people who understand what it takes to scale a software company and there is a strong opportunity for consolidation in this sector right now. Our mission is to help founders of ISVs take the next step – whether they intend to stay with the business they founded or whether they are looking for an exit. Unaric will build industry-focused suites of companies that innovate on product, drive scale and increase revenues.”
Julian Rowe, General Partner at LocalGlobe said “With highly successful, repeat entrepreneurs at the helm, Unaric is one of the most exciting businesses we have seen in the enterprise sector. Peter and James’s ambitious plan will create real value for enterprise customers, as well as unlock strong new investment and commercial opportunities for the companies it acquires.”
What does Unaric do?
Unaric was launched by Salesforce ecosystem serial entrepreneurs James Gasteen and Neil Crawford, alongside ex-Frontier Car Group unicorn founder Peter Lindholm and former M&A banker Moritz Birke.
Unaric can help consolidated companies increase sales by at least 10X through cross-selling opportunities, knowledge-sharing and a shared central infrastructure including a common product and engineering hub to support organic investment opportunities. This approach will help the company unlock significant value for enterprises leveraging the Salesforce ecosystem.
Unaric is building the largest suite of apps on the Salesforce platform. Unlike other software consolidators, it focuses only on Salesforce product. By combining single point solutions together, it is creating industry or function-specific product suites that provide enterprises the best technology they need to enhance and better their Salesforce experience.