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This Week in SaaS May 12 - 18, 2026

The top M&A deals, venture deals, news, and blog posts of the week

By
Ryan Allis
May 18, 2026

‍💻 AI Coding Bootcamp - June 22-25, 2026

Registration is open for the SaasRise AI Coding Bootcamp (June 22–25), a four-day live Zoom workshop teaching companies how to implement AI-first agentic engineering workflows with QA, testing, security, CI, and Claude Code best practices. Separate beginner and advanced tracks help founders, PMs, engineers, and CTOs accelerate R&D velocity 5–10x. Apply to join here. We recommend enrolling at least two engineers and one product manager per company.

📚 New Blog Posts

  1. The MarTech SaaS M&A & Venture Capital Guide
  2. CEO Mastermind Recaps for the Week of May 11 - 14, 2026

💸 Big SaaS VC Rounds

  1. Exaforce (AI-native security operations platform; SaaS) – raised a $125M Series B on May 12, 2026; funds will advance its real-time security knowledge graph, expand multi-model AI capabilities, and scale go-to-market in Japan and Europe.

  2. Gridcare (AI-powered grid capacity intelligence platform for data center developers; climate/infrastructure SaaS) – raised an oversubscribed $64M Series A on May 14, 2026; funds will scale its grid mapping platform to reduce interconnection timelines for new data center capacity.

  3. Nectar Social (Palo Alto-based agentic social operating system for marketers; AI marketing SaaS) – raised a $30M Series A led by Menlo Ventures/Anthology Fund on May 14, 2026; funds will support the launch of the Nectar Agent and expand the agentic marketing platform.

  4. Wirestock (multimodal data platform for AI labs; AI data infrastructure SaaS) – raised a $23M Series A led by Nava Ventures on May 15, 2026; funds will expand custom dataset capacity, extend creative modalities, and deepen integrations with AI lab partners.

  5. Outmarket AI (AI workflow platform for insurance brokerages; vertical insurance SaaS) – raised a $17M Series A on May 13, 2026; funds will scale its Proposal Builder, expand integrations with agency management systems, and grow its brokerage customer base.

  6. Anomaly Insights (AI-powered payer intelligence platform for health systems; vertical healthcare SaaS) – raised an additional $17M on May 13, 2026 (bringing total to $34M); funds will expand its AI platform for healthcare payment disputes and grow deployments across U.S. health systems.
  7. Greenboard (AI-native financial compliance platform; SaaS) – raised a $15.5M Series A (part of a $20M total) on May 12, 2026; funds will expand its newly launched GreenboardGo conversational AI layer and scale go-to-market across financial institutions.

  8. Develo (Los Angeles-based AI-native operating system for pediatric practices; vertical healthcare SaaS) – raised $14M in funding on May 13, 2026; funds will support growth initiatives, expand R&D, and strengthen customer success operations.
  9. White Circle (Paris-based real-time AI control platform for enterprises; SaaS) – raised an $11M Seed on May 12, 2026; funds will grow the team, accelerate product development, and expand customer base across the U.S., U.K., and Europe.
  10. Exponent (New York-based financing and expense management platform for franchise operators; vertical fintech SaaS) – raised a combined $10M Seed and Series A on May 14, 2026; funds will expand the franchise operator platform across new verticals.

🤝 SaaS M&A Deals

  • Akamai Technologies entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LayerX (~$205M; Tel Aviv-based browser-based AI usage control and secure enterprise browser platform, AI security SaaS, Israel/U.S.) – announced on May 15, 2026; this acquisition extends Akamai's Zero Trust portfolio into the browser, where most enterprise AI usage now occurs, and adds an estimated ~$10M ARR business with expected close in Q3 2026.

  • Datavault AI signed a binding letter of intent to acquire CyberCatch Holdings (~C$136.8M / ~US$100M, all-stock; San Diego/Canada-based AI-enabled cyber risk mitigation and quantum-resistant security, cybersecurity SaaS, North America) – announced on May 15, 2026; this deal integrates CyberCatch into Datavault AI's SanQtum-secured edge ecosystem to strengthen its position in the AI-era information security market.

  • Publicis Groupe agreed to acquire LiveRamp (~$2.2B enterprise value, all-cash at $38.50/share; data collaboration and identity platform, ad-tech/data SaaS, U.S.) – announced on May 17, 2026; this acquisition is intended to combine Publicis's media reach with LiveRamp's identity layer to power AI-driven marketing and data co-creation, with closing targeted by year-end 2026.

🧠 Key Takeaways

  • AI growth is the only signal investors trust right now. Per SaaStr's recap of its May 12–14 Annual, "if growth isn't accelerating, you're not an AI company" — the bar for being credible as an AI-native SaaS is reaccelerating ARR, not slide-deck strategy.

  • Build your own AI VP of Marketing before buying one. SaaStr's live on-stage build (May 12) showed founders that orchestration, campaign planning, and cross-channel coordination still don't exist in turnkey vendor products — making in-house agents a competitive moat for small teams.

📰 Community News

See you next week with the next edition ofThis Week in SaaS.

-Ryan Allis, CEO of SaasRise