How many total SaaS companies are there?

As of May 2026, there are 243,057 active companies in SaaS sector.

Which countries have the most SaaS companies?

United States (96,188) has the highest number of SaaS companies, followed by India (31,752) and United Kingdom (29,314).

How many SaaS companies are funded?

As of May 2026, 58,261 companies in this sector have received funding.

Which company has raised the most funding in SaaS sector?

As of May 2026, OpenAI has secured $168B in funding, making it the highest-funded company in the SaaS sector.

Which country has attracted the most investment in SaaS companies?

With $919B in total funding, United States has attracted the most investment among SaaS companies.

Who are the top investors in SaaS companies?

The top investors in SaaS companies by number of investments are Europa, Y Combinator and Techstars

How much venture capital has SaaS sector attracted?

In the last 10 years, venture capital firms have invested $725B in this sector.

How many unicorns has SaaS sector produced?

Globally, there are 693 unicorns in SaaS sector, to date.

SaaS - 2026 Market & Investments Trends

Companies included in SaaS sector

All B2B software that offers cloud-based, multi-tenant solutions for business functions like Marketing, HR, Sales, Business Intelligence, etc.

Companies excluded in SaaS sector

1. All On-premise B2B software are excluded. 2. All companies that do not offer their own proprietary software are excluded. 3. Services and Consulting firms are also excluded. 4. Resellers are also excluded.

Key Metrics

Total Companies

299K

Top Companies

OpenAI, Slack & more

Total Funding

Funded Companies

Series A+ Companies

Series C+ Companies

Unicorns Created

IPOs

Acquisitions

View complete details of this sector

The market map of SaaS gives a visual overview of the sector, showing key business models, their interactions in the value chain, and industry evolution.

Recent BlueBox/Industry Definition image of SaaS

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SaaS - Sector Report

Edition: April, 2026 (211 Pages)

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There are more than 299K companies in SaaS. OpenAI is the top SaaS company globally, ranked using Tracxn Score (what's this?).

Here are 5 of the top SaaS companies globally:

Company	Description	Location	Founded	Current Stage	Private Funding Raised
OpenAI	Developer of artificial intelligence models tools and research-driven platforms	San Francisco (United States)	2015	Series F	$168B
Slack	Provider of cloud-based team communication and collaboration platform	San Francisco (United States)	2009	Acquired	$1.22B
Okta	Provider of identity management solutions for workforces, customers, and AI	San Francisco (United States)	2009	Public	$228M
HubSpot	Provider of a platform offering marketing, sales, and customer service software	Cambridge (United States)	2005	Public	$101M
Salesforce	Provider of a platform delivering customer relationship management and cloud solutions	San Francisco (United States)	1999	Public	$52M

Get a longer list of companies

Companies founded year-on-year in the SaaS sector

366 new startups have been founded so far in 2026 in the SaaS sector. 27,348 SaaS startups were founded in 2020 - this is the most number of startups founded in any year in the last 10 years.

Total Number of Companies

Year	No. of companies
2026	366
2025	6,264
2024	9,638
2023	14,917
2022	12,861
2021	17,647
2020	27,348
2019	20,732
2018	17,596
2017	15,866

Companies founded across countries in the SaaS sector

United States has 96,188 SaaS startups, the most by any country, followed by India which has 31,752 startups and United Kingdom which has 29,314.

Total Number of Companies

Country	No. of companies
United States	96,188
India	31,752
United Kingdom	29,314
Germany	13,606
Canada	10,973
Australia	7,923
France	6,595
China	5,447
Netherlands	5,221
Brazil	4,423

Stage-wise distribution of the SaaS sector

Out of the total 298,610 SaaS companies, 58,261 have secured funding. Among them, 30,231 have reached Series A or higher, and 23,796 to Series B or beyond.

Founded - 298,610

Funded - 58,261

Series A+ - 30,231

Series B+ - 23,796

Series C+ - 21,244

Company Stage	No. of companies
Founded	298,610
Funded	58,261
Series A+	30,231
Series B+	23,796
Series C+	21,244

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299K+ Total Companies
$1.48T+ Total Funding
58.3K+ Funded Companies
2.8K+ IPOs
16.1K+ Acquisitions
5+ Reports

Total funding year-on-year in the SaaS sector

The SaaS sector saw a total funding of more than $1.26T in the last 10 years. The most amount of funding was in 2021 at more than $212B. There has been a total funding of $187B in 2026 till date.

Total Funding

Year	Total Funding
2026	$187B
2025	$182B
2024	$114B
2023	$93.4B
2022	$127B
2021	$212B
2020	$92.2B
2019	$90.5B
2018	$105B
2017	$55.1B

Total funding across countries in the SaaS sector

In the last 10 years, SaaS startups in United States have recieved the highest funding among all countries - $919B. United Kingdom follows with $69.4B and China with $47.7B.

Total Funding

Country	Total Funding
United States	$919B
United Kingdom	$69.4B
China	$47.7B
India	$34.3B
Canada	$27.7B
Germany	$24.9B
Israel	$24.7B
France	$21.3B
Australia	$8.77B
Singapore	$8.51B

Total funding amount raised by stage in the SaaS sector

Over the last 10 years, the SaaS sector have seen $44.6B into Seed Stage funding rounds, $275B into Early Stage funding rounds and $657B go into Late Stage funding rounds.

Funding Stage	Total Funding
Late Stage	$657B
Early Stage	$275B
Debt	$156B
Post IPO	$89B
Seed Stage	$44.6B
PE	$19.2B
Grant	$3.87B
ICO	$2.77B
Other-Equity	$538M

Recent Funding Rounds in SaaS

In the year 2026, till April 2026, SaaS companies have raised $178B in equity funding across 1.08K rounds. In the same period last year (i.e. till April 2025), SaaS companies had raised $70.6B across 1.6K rounds. So, 2026 has seen a 151.57% rise in funding in SaaS companies as compared to 2025.

Here are some recent, important funding rounds in SaaS:

Company	Round Raised	Amount Raised	Funding Date	Investors
Meissa	Series C	4496	Apr 02, 2026	-
Penemue	Seed	9238	Apr 02, 2026	-
Bundle IQ	Seed	2211	Apr 02, 2026	DeepWork Capital
Nexus	Seed	1380	Apr 01, 2026	General Catalyst and 4 more
Airspection	Seed	6936	Apr 01, 2026	Stac

See a more detailed list of funding rounds

Europa is the top investor in SaaS companies based on number of companies invested.

Here are some top investors in SaaS:

Investor	Location	Top Portfolio Companies
Europa	Belgium	Atlassian, ServiceNow, SAP and Oracle
Y Combinator	Mountain View (United States)	Stripe, Razorpay, Substack and Brex
Techstars	New York City (United States)	Ramp, Squarespace, Oracle and Twilio
Accel	Palo Alto (United States)	Slack, Atlassian, DocuSign and Perplexity
Sequoia Capital	Menlo Park (United States)	OpenAI, Okta, HubSpot and LinkedIn

See a more detailed list of investors

In the year 2026, till April 2026, 266 acquisitions happened in SaaS sector. Last year, in 2025, a total of 1284 acquisitions happened in SaaS sector.

Here are some recent, important acquisitions in SaaS:

Company	Acquisition Type	Acquisition Date	Acquirers
Document Crunch	Business Acquisition	Apr 02, 2026	Trimble
Tamarack	Business Acquisition	Apr 02, 2026	Liventus
Revelator	Business Acquisition	Apr 01, 2026	Warner Music
Trust Codes	Business Acquisition	Apr 01, 2026	ScanTrust
OrboGraph	Business Acquisition	Apr 01, 2026	Kinective

See a more detailed list of acquisitions

Acquisition trends in SaaS

Here are the acquisition trends in SaaS:

Total Number of Acquisitions

Year	No. of companies
2026	266
2025	1,284
2024	1,348
2023	1,263
2022	1,669
2021	2,002
2020	1,270
2019	1,247
2018	1,215
2017	1,048

In the year 2026, till March 2026, 13 IPOs happened in SaaS sector.

Here are some recent, important IPOs in SaaS:

Company	IPO Date	Exchange Symbol
Xanadu	Mar 26, 2026	Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
Novus Loyalty	Mar 25, 2026	Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
Smartcraft	Mar 24, 2026	Stockholm Stock Exchange (STO)
Swarmer	Mar 17, 2026	National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ)
Generate Biomedicines	Feb 27, 2026	National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ)

See a more detailed list of IPOs

Companies founded by alumni from top colleges in the SaaS sector

Most number of SaaS startups have been founded by alumni from Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

College	No. of companies
Stanford University	1982
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1308
Harvard University	1298
Harvard Business School	915
University of California (Berkeley)	836
University of Pennsylvania	807
Tel Aviv University	786
University of Cambridge	701
Cornell University	691
University of Oxford	652

Total funding in companies founded by alumni from top colleges in the the SaaS sector

In the last 10 years, Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates' SaaS companies have raised the most funding among top colleges. Harvard University alumni are second, and Carnegie Mellon University alumni are third.

College	Total Funding
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$316B
Harvard University	$299B
Carnegie Mellon University	$224B
University of Toronto	$211B
New York University	$183B
Stanford University	$175B
Princeton University	$103B
Columbia University	$97.6B
Stanford Business School	$90.7B
University of California (Berkeley)	$67.5B