G2 Crowd Makes First Acquisition Following $100 Million in Funding

By STS News Desk On Dec 13, 2018

G2 Crowd Makes First Acquisition Following $100 Million in Funding

Siftery acquisition adds cost savings to leading software discovery and marketplace platform

G2 Crowd is beginning to put its recently announced $100 million in total funding to use, announcing the acquisition of Siftery, the platform that helps businesses eliminate waste in software spend and discover new applications based on the tech stacks used by peer companies.

Siftery is headquartered in San Francisco and had raised $4.1 million from investors. Siftery’s talented team of 20 employees, led by its co-founders CEO Vamshi Mokshagundam and CTO Ayan Barua, will join G2 Crowd.

G2 Crowd is revolutionizing the way businesses discover, buy, and manage software and services. More than two million users per month rely on G2 Crowd to help them find and buy the best software for their business. The platform has over 550,000 reviews, and $100 Million invested by IVP, Accel Partners, LinkedIn, Emergence Capital, Pritzker Group, Chicago Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures, industry leaders, and founders. G2 Crowd’s most recent funding, a $55M Series C, was announced in October.

Companies are using twice as much software as three years ago

Siftery data shows the number of SaaS tools used by small and mid-market businesses has more than doubled from 26 to 55 in the last three years. Since 2015, companies on average have trialed 35% more new software each year. Cost exposure is growing even faster as businesses have spent on average 50% more on software every year for the past four years. According to Netskope, the average large enterprise is now running 1,246 cloud services which is growing over 10% each year.

Siftery’s technology complements the G2 Crowd Review Platform and Marketplace, which businesses use to find, compare and purchase software. Now, they’ll be able to analyze, track, and optimize that spend.

For example, Siftery can uncover when a business has a case of “shadow IT,” such as when three separate teams each buy 50-seats for a software solution rather than a single 150-seat subscription at half the price. Similarly, it can spot when a company is paying for more seats than it has employees, and help make recommendations to reduce spend.

Siftery also monitors the technology that a million companies use which enable buyers to discover what technology their industry peers and competitors use. By combining the Siftery data on technology spend and stack with G2 Crowd’s product reviews, G2 Crowd will be able to uniquely recommend best-fit software to all businesses and seamlessly connect them to the best-fit vendors to make purchases.

“We’re excited to join the G2 Crowd team so we can more quickly realize our joint vision,” said Vamshi Mokshagundam, co-founder and CEO of Siftery. “By becoming part of the G2 family, Siftery’s technology can reach millions more people, continue to develop rapidly, and have a bigger impact around the world in helping to eliminate wasted and inefficient software spend.”

How Siftery is trying to save companies $34 billion a year

Businesses are now spending $1.4 trillion a year just on enterprise software and related IT services, and that figure is expected to keep jumping in the coming years.

But along with this massive proliferation of digital technologies comes a great deal of waste. Businesses in the US and UK alone waste $34 billion each year in licensing fees for unused and underused software. This does not include lost productivity and additional expenses due to glitchy or poorly performing solutions.

“We believe that everyone in business deserves the right to reach their potential — and the only way they can do that is through a trusted marketplace that’s free to access, and is not pay-to-play,” said Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO of G2 Crowd.

“Every day, new and potentially disruptive technologies and services are released into the world. Anyone who wants great software to perform at their best, from intern to CEO, should be able to quickly discover, buy, and manage the best technology for their business.

“G2 Crowd has become known as a place where you can discover and buy great software. With the acquisition of Siftery, we’re now able to help businesses manage their investment and use of software.”