This tech CEO says 2022 is the year to get IPO-ready

This is the seventh venture or private-equity backed business he’s run, and his focus has always been on efficiency and steadily turning a profit. Those are two variables that investors and startups have been spending a whole lot more time paying attention to in recent months.

“I have been in board meetings quite a bit where people want you to burn, go faster, go harder, burn more. Those are discussions that you have,” Swalla says. “I’ve seen these cycles come and go before and… Understanding my role as an operator [it’s hard for me] to pivot too far away from the fundamentals of a business.” 

Dotmatics, owned by Insight Partners, is an R&D scientific software provider that organizes data for labs and helps them share it with research partners. The Boston-based company is on pace to hit approximately $200 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of this year—which would be 30% organic growth from 2021, Swalla tells me. He wouldn’t specify net income figures, but said the company was profitable and ​​that it was a “Rule of 70” business (his spin on the popular SaaS metric “Rule of 40,” which indicates that a company’s combined growth rate and free cash flow rate are 40% or higher). 

This year, Swalla is doing something some might find surprising: prepping the company for an IPO. Given rising interest rates, inflation, and the war in Ukraine that have pummeled stock prices for tech companies, Swalla says it’s unlikely the company would go public this year, and will be hard to predict when Dotmatics would actually hit the exchange. Besides, it’s ultimately up to the board, he says. But in the meantime, the company is lining up the right exec team (including its recent hires CFO Rebeca Sanchez Sarmiento and president Mike McKee) and sorting out compliance, legal, finance, and accounting work to ready itself for the next stage of growth. 

“Being profitable, we have no need to raise capital today,” Swalla says. “But I think, ultimately, we will have needs to raise capital if we can continue to execute on our M&A and inorganic growth strategy, and so we certainly look at the public markets as one of those avenues.” 

Dotmatics itself is a compilation of 10 different softwares, which are all tailored at servicing scientists, that have been aggregated under the hood of one company via acquisitions since 2017, when Insight Partners first acquired the initial entity. The whole company rebranded under Dotmatics earlier this year, and Swalla became CEO of the whole entity after the latest acquisition.

It’s unclear how long the IPO pipeline might remain closed, but as for now, it’s time to keep turning a profit, according to Swalla.

“Maybe it’s growing up in Iowa and detasseling corn—businesses are supposed to make money after they sell a product and have the inputs to produce their product,”  Swalla says. 

Please note… In yesterday’s newsletter, I misstated the number of employees Bolt Financial had on staff earlier this year. The correct number is about 900.

Programming update… In observance of Juneteenth, Term Sheet will be taking Monday off, so you can expect this newsletter back in your inboxes bright and early on Tuesday, June 21. 

Until then, 

Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Vendr, a Boston-based SaaS buying platform, raised $150 million in Series B funding. Craft Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round and were joined by investors including Sozo Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Sound Ventures, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator. 

- airSlate, a Boston, Mass.-based workflow automation solutions provider, raised $51.5 million in funding. G Squared and UiPath invested in the round. 

- Playermaker, a London-based wearable sports footwear performance tracker, raised $40 million in funding. Ventura Capital Group led the round and was joined by investors including MIG Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and others. 

- Able, a San Francisco-based loan processing platform for commercial lenders, raised $20 million in funding. Canapi Ventures led the round and was joined by Human Capital.

- Indoor Robotics, a Tel Aviv-based indoor drone technology company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Pitango led the round and was joined by investors including Target Global, European Innovation Council Fund, and Spider Capital. 

- Onymos, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based software company for app features development, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Great Point Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Benhamou Global Ventures, Engineering Capital, and Industry Ventures. 

- Auxilius, a New York-based clinical trial financial management platform for biotech companies, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Renegade Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Bain Capital Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and other angels. 

- Canditech, a Tel Aviv-based online job-simulation platform, raised $9 million in seed funding. Insight Partners and StageOne Ventures led the round. 

- Ahana, a San Mateo, Calif.-based data analytics platform, raised an additional $7.2 million in funding. Liberty Global Ventures and GV invested in the round. 

- Dynaboard, a San Francisco-based web applications developer, raised $6.6 million in seed funding. XYZ Venture Capital led the round and was joined by others. 

- Webio, a Dublin-based customer engagement platform for the credit, collections and payments industry, raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Finch Capital. 

- Kairos, a San Francisco-based NFT creation tools provider, raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding. Worklife Ventures and Seven Seven Six co-led the round.

- Rayon, a Paris-based space design software developer, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. Seedcamp led the round and was joined by investors including Foundamental, 20VC, Kima, and other angels. 

- Green Badger, a Savannah, Ga.-based SaaS developer for managing sustainable construction, raised $1.125 million in seed funding. Shadow Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including GroundBreak Ventures, Hamilton Ventures, and others. 

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Prototek Holdings, a TruArc Partners portfolio company, acquired ProtoCAM, an Allentown, Pa.-based industrial 3D printing company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Wheel Pros, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, agreed to acquire Transamerican Auto Parts, a Compton, Calif.-based manufacturer, distributor, retailer and installer of off-road Jeep and light truck parts and accessories. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EXITS

- Cognitive Capital Partners acquired Grand Equipment Company, a Hudsonville, Mich.-based construction equipment dealer, from Blackford Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

OTHER

- Telus agreed to acquire LifeWorks, a Toronto-based digital health provider for about CAD $2.3 billion ($1.8 billion).

-  Acrisure acquired QuickInsured, a Columbus, Ohio-based insurance agency. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- InMoment acquired ReviewTrackers, a Chicago-based customer review management software company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS 

- Syngenta Group, a Basel, Switzerland-based seed and fertilizer company, is considering a raise of 65 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) in an initial public offering in Shanghai before the end of this year, according to Bloomberg. The company is backed by China National Chemical Corp. 

- Tianqi Lithium, a Sichuan, China-based lithium provider, received approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange to in the city, according to Bloomberg. The company plans to raise between $1 billion to $1.2 billion. 

- Solta Medical, the Bothell, Wash.-based skincare brand of Bausch Health, suspended its plans for an initial public offering. 

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- FPV Fund, a venture capital fund raised $450 million for their first fund focused on early stage companies. 

- Project A Ventures, a Berlin-based venture capital firm, raised $375 million for a fourth fund focused on founders in pre-seed to Series A companies.

- Greenfield Partners, a Tel Aviv-based investment firm, raised $350 million for a fund focused on Series B and C software, fintech, and consumer/internet companies.  

- Inovia Capital, a Montreal-based venture capital firm, raised $325 million for its fifth early-stage fund focused on sustainable Canadian tech companies. 

PEOPLE

- Geodesic Capital, a Foster City, Calif.-based investment firm, hired Arvind Ayyala as partner. Formerly, he was with EDBI.