Unqork’s $207M Series C underscores growing enterprise demand for no-code apps

This week, Unqork, a startup that helps other companies build business apps with a no-code platform, raised a $207 million Series C. The new capital valued the firm at around $2 billion.

Even given how much attention 2020 has brought to no-code startups and their low-code relatives, the investment stood out as outsized — and rapid. Previously, Unqork added $51 million to its Series B earlier this year, bringing that round to a total of around $131 million.

To see the company raise even more this quickly signaled that something was afoot.

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So we sent in a raft of questions to the company to better understand the demand that it is seeing in the market for its service. I want to help both you and I better understand not only how Unqork managed to attract such a massive new check, but also what its notes tell us about the market for no-code services that help business build apps, a key portion of the no-code/low-code market.

What might be working for Unqork, in other words, could be working for other players in the space. And, if so, the whole no-code/low-code world could be enjoying an even sharper tailwind than we previously anticipated.

We’ll also bring in a few notes from Laela Sturdy, a general partner at Alphabet’s Capital G investing group. She led the company’s Series B and sits on its board. Luckily, we have a grip of her thoughts from our August no-code/low-code investor survey. Let’s get into it!

The round

Briefly, the round. Unqork raised $207 million at a roughly $2 billion price point — post-money, we presume — in a Series C led by BlackRock. Other money buckets took part, including funds from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Sunley House Capital Management, Eldridge and Fin Venture Capital, per the company. Prior investors including the aforementioned Capital G, along with Broadridge Financial Solutions, Aquiline Technology Growth, Goldman Sachs and World Innovation Lab also took part.

That is a long list of names. But it takes a while to add up to nine figures of capital, so perhaps the party-round style Series C is not too surprising.

Regardless, the firm is now incredibly well-capitalized and we can move onto more interesting things. Namely, how the company managed to raise so very much money. The Exchange asked Unqork a few questions:

• First, what is driving the demand for more business apps, a topic we’ve explored before.
• Second, we wanted to know what impact COVID-19 has had on the business; has the pandemic provided a dramatic lift to Unqork’s business, and, if so, did that drive its growth forward and help it secure the Series C?
• And, finally, we asked about the company’s sales cadence; is Unqork seeing faster sales cycles? If so, it could indicate that the market is moving towards no-code business app creation, lowering the hurdles that startups working in the space have to clear to snag new customers.
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