Enterprise Weekly #410: Microsoft's Struggles, Stripe's Liquidity Plan, and More
While the Big 3 usually report earnings the same week, this season, Microsoft decided to get a head start…and it’s not pretty.
Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business reported $22B in revenue with Azure up 31% alone (a slowdown from 35% last quarter and 46% the four quarters before that). Microsoft's cloud business is its main revenue driver and with slowed growth, Microsoft itself reported only 2% growth, its slowest quarter in more than six years.
To make matters worse, their CFO warned Azure’s growth would “further slow in the coming months.” But this isn't much of a surprise – customers continue to cut costs amid the shaky economic climate and just days ago Microsoft announced it would conduct layoffs totaling 10,000 people (roughly 5% of its global workforce). In even more bad news, on Wednesday, Microsoft was hit with a global cloud outage that locked users out of several Microsoft 365 services…yikes.
Stay tuned for news on AWS and Google Cloud earnings next week. Will they be just as gloomy?
In the private markets, Stripe announced a potential liquidity plan for employees. In the next 12 months, they’ll either complete a direct listing or pursue a tender offer. While Stripe missed their opportunity to IPO during the 2020/2021 market peak, the new urgency is driven by the demand for employee liquidity in the face of their expiring RSU options.
Lastly, check out the latest add to our Enterprise Playbook Library on Leveling Up Discovery and Demo Calls. Especially as budgets tighten, it’s more critical than ever to hone your sales calls, better uncover prospects' pain points, demonstrate ROI, and drive urgency to close.
📚 Read more news:
NYTimes: For Tech Companies, Years of Easy Money Yield to Hard Times
NYTimes: Microsoft to Invest $10B in OpenAI, the Creator of ChatGPT
Pitchbook: The State of VC in 6 Charts
Pitchbook: Even Startups With Runway Probably Can't Grow Into Those Sky-High Valuations
TechCrunch: VCs Think Majority of Unicorns Aren’t Worth $1B Anymore
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: Alkymi
Role: Director of Demand Generation
Technology: Data Extraction & Document Automation
Funding: $26M from Intel Capital, Canaan Partners and Work-Bench
🌟Company of the Week🌟
Sandbar raises $4.8M led by Lachy Groom and Abstract Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • New York, NY
Founders: Brock Bontrager (CEO), Brandon Bontrager (CCO), Abe Goldstein (CTO)
Argilla raises $1.6M led by Zetta Venture Partners and Caixa Capital Risc
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Madrid, Spain
Whalesync raises $1.8M led by Y Combinator, Liquid 2 and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Redmond, WA
Traction Complete raises $5M led by Pender Ventures and Thomvest Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Port Moody, Canada
Accord raises $10M led by Matrix Partners and Others
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Supernormal raises $10M led by Balderton Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • Stockholm, Sweden
Kittl raises $11.6M led by Left Lane Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Series A • New York, NY
Vartana raises $12M led by Xerox Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Hawk AI raises $17M led by Sands Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Munich, Germany
Gemba raises $18M led by Parkway Venture Capital
HR Tech • Series A • London, UK
ChartHop raises $20M led by Cox Enterprises
Future of Work • Series C • New York, NY
PayEm raises $20M led by Viola Credit, Mitsubishi Financial Group and Others
Future of Work • Series A • San Francisco, CA
DevZero raises $26M led by Anthos Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Seattle, WA
Memfault raises $24M led by Stripes
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • San Francisco, CA
AtomicJar raises $25M led by Insight Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • New York, NY
Inscribe raises $25M led by Threshold Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Snyk raises $25M led by ServiceNow
Risk / Security • Series G • Boston, MA
Strata raises $26M led by Telstra Ventures
Risk / Security • Series B • Boulder, CO
Komprise raises $37M led by Canaan Partners, Celesta Capital and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Campbell, CA
Crowdbotics raises $40M led by NEA
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • Berkeley, CA
Crux raises $50M led by Two Sigma and Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Forward Networks raises $50M led by MSD Partners
Risk / Security • Series D • Santa Clara, CA
Welcome to the Jungle raises $54M led by Cipio Partners, Groupe ADP and Others
Future of Work • Series C • New York, NY
CYGNVS raises $55M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Risk / Security • Series A • Los Altos, CA
Pasqal raises $109M led by Temasek
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Paris, France
Dell acquires Cloudify for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tool • Acquisition • Herzliya, Israel
McKinsey acquires Iguazio for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • Herzliya, Israel
Harness acquires Propelo for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Acquisition • Santa Clara, CA