Subscription Billing Platform Chargebee Becomes Unicorn After $125M Series G

Chargebee, a subscription billing and revenue management platform, is valued $1.4 billion following a $125 million Series G.

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The San Francisco-based company developed an infrastructure for companies to create a subscription business in as little as 10 days and be able to bring in a reliable source of revenue, Krish Subramanian, co-founder and CEO at Chargebee, told Crunchbase News.

“Most of our customers are going through the growing pains of scaling, and we enable them to scale, so from a product category, it is here to stay,” he said. “With this funding, we have the freedom to define the category as a full revenue management stack in the subscription space.”

The new round of funding comes after Chargebee experienced 100 percent growth year over year. New investor Sapphire Ventures co-led the investment with existing investors Tiger Global and Insight Partners, along with participation from other existing investors.

Including the new round, Chargebee has raised a total of $230 million since the company’s inception in 2011, Subramanian said. This includes a $55 million Series F round last October, when the company was valued at $500 million, he added.

Companies, such as Zuora, were the first generation of subscription, and Chargebee is among the next generation, said Rajeev Dham, a partner at Sapphire Ventures, in an interview.

“It’s all about market timing,” Dham said. “We heard from customers and developers that they want an out-of-the-box solution. The market is tipping out and Chargebee taking market share. They are also customer-centric: When we have an issue, we get intelligent help and, to me, there is no such thing as overinvestment in the customer, and Chargebee is best-in-class.”

Meanwhile, the global pandemic accelerated the shift to subscription-based business models, which are being used by businesses from cars to coffee providers, Subramanian said. A Gartner report forecasts that 75 percent of organizations selling direct-to-consumers will offer subscription services.

Currently, Chargebee is managing 3,000 customers in the U.S. and Europe, and the funding will go toward customer acquisition while also serving fast-growing customers, as well as product development, Subramanian said. The company has more than 500 employees in 120 cities, which is a 2x growth from last year. He expects to be in the 700-employee range by the end of the year, looking to add more staff to support customers.

“We are going to be heads down and focused on customer demand,” he added. “From a product standpoint, we are focusing on more things to bring value. Every company uses so many products, so keeping up with product innovation is one of the challenges. We also want to ensure our road map is aligned with customers for the next two years so we don’t get in the way of their growth.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias