Sutter Hill Ventures has financed technology-based start-ups and assisted entrepreneurs in building companies since 1962. Through their decades of experience, they have developed strong industry networks, considerable operating and venture capital experience, and an understanding of the challenges that early-stage and high-growth companies face. They offer expertise in developing business strategies and partnerships, building management teams, and financing companies in both public and private markets. They have experienced operating executives who love building companies. Their approach is straightforward. They have a collegial and uncomplicated operating style that is direct and results-driven. They work as a team to respond quickly to new investment proposals and to their portfolio companies needs. Once they invest in a company, they bring to bear their time, expertise, and extensive industry networks to help these companies succeed. Building companies is their top priority and their favorite occupation. They have structured Sutter Hill to allow them to invest in a focused portfolio of early-stage companies and build value for the long term. They are always available to their CEOs and founders as advisors and mentors ready with practical and strategic advice from their own venture capital and operating experiences. They don't insist on winning every argument, but they will always tell you what they think. They also have a network of executives, advisors, and support infrastructure to help their portfolio get going in the right direction quickly. As former line managers themselves, they know the vision, energy, and commitment that building a successful company requires. They strive to build partnerships with entrepreneurs that combine dedicated support from Sutter Hill with trust that the teams they back can make good decisions and execute on the details. Their limited partners have committed long-term support to their evergreen fund which allows them to make long-term commitments to their companies. In addition, a significant portion of every dollar they invest in their own money, and each one of them participates in every investment. This direct investment reinforces each partner's commitment to every company in their portfolio and ensures that they bring every available resource to bear in helping their companies succeed.

Sutter Hill Ventures

Top Tier Capital Partners is a venture capital specialist managing niche-focused funds of funds, secondaries, and co-investment strategies. The firm makes primary and secondary investments in venture capital funds and co-invest in select portfolio companies.

Top Tier Capital Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor that partners with growth-stage technology and software companies. Insight has a deep focus in Fintech, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, DevOps, and Healthcare sectors. Across their people and their portfolio, they encourage a culture around a core belief growth equals opportunity. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO.

Insight Partners

Madrona Venture Group is a Seattle-based venture capital firm. The firm prefers to invest in businesses that are involved in information technology, e-commerce, digital media, advertising, software, gaming, data, analytics, mobile, and infrastructure.

Madrona

Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities. Summit has invested in more than 460 companies in technology, healthcare, life sciences, and other growth industries. Summit Partners enhances the value of these companies through infrastructure development, executive and board recruiting, and strategic and operational advice. The firm also brings extensive experience in helping companies navigate the complex process of public offerings or strategic sales and mergers.

Summit Partners

The Employee Stock Option Fund provides current and former employees of venture-backed companies with financial help needed to exercise options and cover associated taxes. It has a due diligence strategy and transaction protocol to evaluate and close transactions very quickly. The ESO Fund provides a new approach to exercising stock options that provides superior ROI potential through leverage and tax optimization. The fund also provides individuals who have already exercised private stock options with partial liquidity on the same terms that allows the owners to recover capital and eliminate downside risk while still retaining the potential upside from the stock.  ESO Fund was formed by Stephen Roberts, Jimmy Lackie, and Scott Chou in 2012.

Employee Stock Option Fund

Blackstone Group is a private equity firm that invests in private equity, real estate, public debt, equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets, and secondary funds.

Blackstone Group

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is an enterprise work management platform that enables organizations to manage projects, programs, and processes effectively. The platform offers flexible solutions tailored to various business needs, integrating with existing software for seamless operations.

Smartsheet is a SaaS platform offering solutions for collaborative work automation, including task delegation, progress tracking, document sharing, and calendar management.&nbsp; The platform has integrated with Microsoft, Atlassian, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The platform also offers no-code automation features that allows non-technical users to build workflows on the platform. The platform, offered in eight languages, has offices in Boston, London, Edinburgh, and Sydney.

The tools that power remote work are define the next generation of enterprise software.

Remote Work Tools

<div>Smartsheet is a no code spreadsheet-centric SaaS platform offering collaborative work automation solutions to build cross-platform processes, and business-driven web and mobile apps using 3 main tools: 1) Control Center, a Smartsheet tool that automates project creation, aggregating portfolio reporting and managing change, 2) WorkApps, a tool that allows users to build apps using Smartsheet and third party content like Tableau dashboards or Google Docs, and 3) Bridge, a tool that enables users to connect data across systems and automates routine tasks.</div>

Now anyone can become a software developer.

No-code Software

The Analyst Verdict: Smartsheet In The Eyes Of 26 Experts

Amazon Web Services

To enable Smartsheet users to access their work management data through Amazon Q Business, a generative AI-powered assistant, improving productivity and decision-making.

Platforms that facilitate task delegation and tracking with board, timeline, and kanban style views.

Amazon

To enable Amazon Q Business customers to access and leverage Smartsheet data, including sheets, conversations, and file contents, through a unified search experience powered by AWS's generative AI assistant, improving productivity and decision-making.

Exploring the limitless possibilities of AI

Generative AI Applications

Companies that offer solutions to generate contextually relevant text responses across multiple conversational exchanges, such as natural language chatbots

To streamline knowledge management and accelerate employee productivity, Smartsheet has implemented Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered assistant, in its Slack app.

Smartsheet is a SaaS platform offering solutions for collaborative work automation, including task delegation, progress tracking, document sharing, and calendar management.&nbsp; The platform has integrated with Microsoft, Atlassian, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The platform also offers no-code automation features that allows non-technical users to build workflows on the platform. The platform, offered in eight languages, has offices in Boston, London, Edinburgh, and Sydney.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/34580">October 2024</a>, Smartsheet launched new user experience and features to enhance usability and overall experience.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33961">September 2024</a>, Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone offered to buy Smartsheet for USD 8.4 billion. Previously, in September 2022, Smartsheet acquired brand management, templating and creative automation platform; Outfit, complementing its previous acquisition of Brandfolder (September 2020), a digital asset management platform. Smartsheet’s other past acquisitions include 10,000ft (a project management tool), TernPro (the developer of Slope Software), and Converse.AI (a business automation bot developer).&nbsp;For FY2023, the company reported a total revenue of USD 766.9 million, a 39% increase year-over-year. Subscription revenue rose by 41% to USD 713.7 million, and professional services revenue increased by 22% to USD 53.2 million. The GAAP operating loss was USD 221.6 million, or 29% of total revenue, while the non-GAAP operating loss was USD 36.0 million, or 5% of total revenue. GAAP net loss was USD 215.6 million, with a net loss per share of USD 1.66. Non-GAAP net loss was USD 29.2 million, with a net loss per share of USD 0.22.&nbsp;The company guided FY2024 revenue to be between USD 943 to 948 million, implying a YoY growth of 23%–24%, and Non-GAAP net income per share of USD 0.31 to USD 0.38.Key Customers and partnershipsThe company mainly caters to enterprises and it is trusted by more than 90% of the fortune 100 companies.&nbsp;In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/34581">October 2024,</a> Smartsheet partnered&nbsp; with AWS to launch connectors for Amazon Q Business.&nbsp;

Hive is a productivity platform for project management and collaboration. The platform provides automated workflows, project planning layouts, and action templates to assign and keep track of project tasks. Hive focuses on improving task execution with instant feedback cycles for editing and approvals. Additional features include note taking (Hive Note), instant messaging, online meetings, and file sharing.Hive offers a variety of ways for teams to organize their projects, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, tables, and calendars, with updates made in one view automatically reflected in all others. The platform allows team members to create action cards with files, sub-actions, dependencies, and comments to stay on top of their objectives, and have access to a personal to-do list that compiles all assigned tasks from all projects. Managers can use Hive to assign approvals, share proofs, provide feedback, and collect project forms from clients and customers. Hive also uses AI and machine learning to provide insights on team productivity and identify potential risks, and to optimize resource allocation and client billing.Key customers and partnershipsThe company’s customer base includes Google, Toyota, Comcast, and Starbucks. Hive offers integrations with over 1,000 SaaS platforms, including Asana, Trello, Basecamp, and Smartsheet, allowing users to import tasks from these platforms.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5208">August 2021</a>, Hive raised USD 10 million in a funding round led by Rembrandt Venture Partners with participation from Zoom, and existing investors Tribeca Venture Partners and Angelpad. Hive is one of the first startups to receive an investment from Zoom’s “Zoom Apps Fund” (a USD 100 million global venture fund). The fresh funds were allocated toward platform development.&nbsp;

Hive

Grain’s software allows users to record, highlight, transcribe, and share online meeting content from tools such as Zoom in an effective manner. It automatically records and transcribes meetings, allowing users to create shareable video clips from highlighted transcript sections. Grain leverages AI to generate customizable meeting notes and answer questions about the transcript. It supports coaching and collaboration through comments and training content creation. The platform offers deal analytics and insights, tracking key account activities and integrating with tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, and Slack. &nbsp;The company’s products focus on distributed teams, sales, product and user research, and hiring teams.In April 2022, the company acquired Ping Pong, a video messaging platform.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9759">April 2022</a>, Grain raised USD 16 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management. The funds were raised to expand operations and develop its ​​video meeting system of record for content, which allows employees to collaborate around insights, topics, relationships, or teams.

Grain

Air is a creative operations platform designed for creative teams to streamline their workflows and collaborate more effectively. It offers a comprehensive solution that goes beyond basic cloud storage systems, catering specifically to the needs of the creative process. Air allows users to collect content, approve assets, share versions for feedback, and organize their work seamlessly, eliminating the need for additional organizational efforts.Air provides a centralized hub for content collaboration, approval, and versioning. Air's technology streamlines various aspects of the creative workflow, including content collection, asset approval, version control, and feedback sharing. Unlike traditional cloud storage solutions, Air's platform is tailored to the specific requirements of creative teams, enabling them to work more efficiently and effectively.Key customers and PartnershipsThe company’s customer base includes notable firms such as Native, Together, Spindrift, and Univision.&nbsp;Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8139">January 2022</a>, Air raised USD 10 million in an “Operator Round” led by Headline with participation from Tiger Global, Lere Hippeau, and 50+ strategic founders and marketing executives including Peter Rahal (Co-Founder, RXBAR), Kipp Bodnar (CMO, HubSpot), and Joe Thomas (CEO, Loom), valuing the company at USD 110 million. The funds were used to accelerate Air’s go-to-market activities and growth.

Acapela was co-founded by Roland Grenke, founder of Dubsmash, a video sharing social media app. Acapela facilitates online meetings without real-time interaction between participants; instead, members contribute to meetings over time.Acapela provides voice and video messages integrated with popular productivity tools such as Asana, Google Workspace, Notion, and Atlassian. Additionally, meetings will generate tasks and meeting summaries automatically. The company identified distributed tech teams as its initial target segment and plans to shift focus toward small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger enterprises eventually. The product is currently in invite-only beta.In October 2020, the company exited stealth mode with a USD 3 million seed funding round led by Visionaries Club. The round included Entrepreneur First and other notable individual investors, such as Christian Reber (founder of presentation software Pitch) and Taavet Hinrikus (founder of online money transfer service TransferWise).

Acapela

iObeya is a cloud-based enterprise visual management platform that enables organizations to digitize their Lean, Agile, and Industry 4.0 practices. The platform provides virtual "Oobeyas" (Japanese for "big room"), which are digital collaborative workspaces where teams can align, synchronize, and visualize their work using digital boards, sticky notes, and other visual tools. iObeya's platform allows teams to recreate the in-person experience of paper-based visual management practices with real-time collaboration, enhancing team efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving.iObeya's technology supports a wide range of enterprise use cases, including industrial product lifecycle management, manufacturing operational excellence, product development, and continuous improvement for business performance and agility. It integrates with various systems like ERP, MES, BI, and Application lifecycle Management (ALM) tools such as Atlassian Jira and Microsoft Azure DevOps Server.Key customers and partnershipsiObeya's customer base includes global enterprises such as Airbus, Thales, Volvo, Philips, Cartier, Axa, Eli Lilly and Company, Western Digital, General Electric, Kimberly-Clark, Danaher, and Sanofi.Funding and FinancialsIn July 2020, iObeya raised USD 17 million in a series A funding round led by Red River West with participation from Atlantic Bridge Capital and Fortino Capital Partners. The funds were allocated to develop its platform further and accelerate the company’s expansion in the US.

iObeya

Platforms that provide virtual workspaces using spatial technology to combine a variety of productivity and collaboration tools in a single space.

Platforms that provide standalone presentation software, prototyping and web development software, templates, and design workspaces.

Platforms that provide standalone video communication tools and complementary products such as interactive interfaces, presentation features, and transcription software.

Platforms that offer chat and email-based collaborative tools.

Solutions in this industry hub are predominantly offered under a B2B SaaS model

Some solutions in the virtual office and video conferencing segments are based on AR/VR

Facilitates hybrid workforces by offering tools for employees to collaborate regardless of location

Meeting transcription and note-taking apps, design, and project management tools use AI/ML for product development

<div>
 
 Smartsheet is a no code spreadsheet-centric SaaS platform offering collaborative work automation solutions to build cross-platform processes, and business-driven web and mobile apps using 3 main tools: 1) Control Center, a Smartsheet tool that automates project creation, aggregating portfolio reporting and managing change, 2) WorkApps, a tool that allows users to build apps using Smartsheet and third party content like Tableau dashboards or Google Docs, and 3) Bridge, a tool that enables users to connect data across systems and automates routine tasks.
 
 
 In the Q2 FY2024 (ended January 31), Smartsheet introduced new generative AI features to select a group of customers as part of a private beta release. These AI capabilities are designed to provide these customers with insights and assist them in creating complex solutions. Additionally, Smartsheet also improved its computational features and its cross-sheet cell linking capacity during this period. Notably, it increased the capacity from 30,000 to 500,000 cells per sheet.
 
 
 The platform is integrated with Microsoft, Atlassian, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).&nbsp;
 
 
 In September 2020, the company acquired digital asset management platform Brandfolder for USD 155 million to integrate its capabilities into the Smartsheet platform. In September 2022, the company went on to acquire Outfit, a brand management platform, for an undisclosed amount, to integrate Outfit&rsquo;s design automation and templating tools capabilities into Brandfolder.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of February 2024, Smartsheet was serving &ldquo;millions&rdquo; of customers, including over 90% of the Fortune 500, with large enterprises such as Uber, Pfizer, P&amp;G, Lego, and Roche among its clients.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In FY2024, the company reported USD 958.3 million in revenue (up 25% YoY). The company also estimated revenue to reach USD&nbsp; 1.1 billion (implying a 18% YoY growth) in FY2025. Notably, in February 2024, the company announced that it had reached USD 1 billion in annualized recurring revenue (ARR).
 
</div>

Index offers a no-code platform for enterprises to build dashboards for internal use to obtain insights on business metrics, investor updates and operation overviews, among others. As of June 2021, the product remains at beta, with a limited early preview. The platform provides prebuilt templates, and also has tools for users to build their own dashboards. The dashboard can be integrated with multiple apps including Hubspot ((customer relationship management data), Stripe (payment data), and Postgres and MongoDB (databases), slack (remote working) and Google Sheets (spreadsheets), among others. The company raised USD 2.6 million in Seed funding in October 2020. It intends to invest the funds in hiring two engineers (in addition to the two founders) and continuing to refine and develop the product. The founders aim to reach USD 1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and expand their product distribution.

Index

<div>
 
 Stencyl offers a drag-and-drop no-code platform that enables users to create and publish web and mobile games. Users can build their game logic using the platform&rsquo;s pre-built code blocks, design visual elements via an in-built graphics editor, and publish across a range of platform&rsquo;s such as IoS, Android, Windows and Mac. Moreover,&nbsp; Stencyl also enables users to embed ads into their games as a secondary source of revenue.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of February 2024, Stencyl was used by over 500,000 registered developers. Apps created on Stencyl have reached top slots in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and its most successful web games have been sponsored by major publishers including ArmorGames, Kongregate, and Newgrounds.
 
</div>

Stencyl

Universe offers a no-code platform for users to build websites that can be added to social media pages. Websites can be built using drag and drop blocks to add images, videos, and other content to create a mobile-first website. The Platform offers creative controls, 30 pre-made themes, and block features to allow users to create a custom site and/or open an e-commerce store directly from a mobile phone.The company began as a landing page builder and progressed to developing websites, which include tools for adding shopping blocks. Universe targets micro businesses that are not tech-savvy.<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20509">In July 2023 </a>, Universe launched the beta version of Generative Universe Sites (GUS), an AI-powered website designing tool. This solution provides a conversational interface for users to dictate their requirements for a website and then generates a customized web page.Funding and financialsIn December 2021, Universe raised USD 30 million in a Series B funding round led by Addition to develop the company’s block-based system for website building named “GRID,” expand its commercial offering for startups, and extend GRID to more platforms and devices. Additionally, the company used the funds to expand its reach in new markets and grow its employee base.

Universe

Readymag is a web-based drag and drop tool that enables users to create websites, presentations and digital magazines. Its customers include large enterprises such as AirBnB, Forbes, Esquire, and IDEO.

Readymag

UserGuiding is a user onboarding tool that helps create interactive guides for customers. Functions include user onboarding, feature adoption, in-product messaging, and customer feedback, among others. As of September 2020, the company had over 2,000 global enterprise clients. UserGuiding raised USD 1.1 million in seed funding in August 2020, which it intends to use to expand its operations by increasing its workforce, accelerating global expansion, and enhancing product development.

UserGuiding

Allows users to create apps for their own businesses by using their data and ideas and converting them into apps to improve their workflow.

Platforms that allow users to create online/mobile games in a no-code environment.

Platforms and tools that enable users to build mobile-based apps using templates and tools (widgets) in a visual environment.

Platforms that let users create workflow and process management systems in a spreadsheet format integrating with databases. This also includes data science tools, which enable users to run predictive analysis on data sets through drag-and-drop functions using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Tools that allow users to build websites, ranging from blogs to e-commerce sites, in a visual environment without the need for coding. Often has no-code tools to integrate with other online tools, such as payment gateways.

Offers solutions for building internal applications and automations for enterprises

Many solutions enable users to leverage AI/ML for predictive analytics

Offers solutions for building enterprise-specific applications and automations

Some solutions leverage GenAI to enable users to build application and website templates without coding

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 
 Smartsheet, a work management platform, has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to introduce a connector for Amazon Q Business, an AI-powered assistant. The connector brings together data from Smartsheet and Amazon Q Business, enabling users to inquire the AI assistant for information on projects, programs, and processes handled in Smartsheet. The goal of this integration is to provide a consolidated search experience across corporations' information repositories, combining Smartsheet data with other sources like Salesforce, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
 The Smartsheet connector is currently available for Amazon Q Business users in a public preview. Furthermore, Smartsheet is offering its complete selection of AI tools to all customers until the end of December.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Amazon Q was <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/24426"> launched </a> in November last year in public preview and made <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/29026"> generally available </a> in April this year. AWS claims that the tool can considerably enhance productivity among developers and aid business users in making faster decisions.

Smartsheet

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