The median valuation for cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies raising their third round of venture funding (Series C) rose by 40% to $210m this year, according to an internal study by the Silicon Valley Bank. Those in Series D, meanwhile, saw their valuations jump by more than 70% to a minimum of $1.7bn.
The exponential rise in valuations is largely being driven by the race to find the next Snowflake or Zoom, whose shares have risen by 176% and 464% respectively this year. Among the biggest winners in the cloud were virtual events company Hopin, which saw its valuation rise more than fivefold to $2bn in November from a previous fundraising in June; and workplace productivity start-up Click-Up, whose nominal market value increased by around 500% during its most recent round of financing