Chennai- and San Francisco-headquartered B2B company Chargebee has raised USD 125 million in a Series G round co-led by Inflexor Ventures and its existing backers Tiger Global and Insight Venture partners.
Steadview Capital also participated in the round that valued Chargebee at USD 1.4 billion, making it the latest Indian tech unicorn. With this round of investment, the company has raised a total of USD 230 million.
The 10-year-old startup provides subscription and recurring billing system for subscription-based companies, including SaaS services, e-commerce companies, edtech startups, and OTT platforms, to automate and manage their revenues.
Much like most of the Indian SaaS companies, Chargebee founders started the company in India—in the southern state of Chennai—and later took their products to global markets.
“We are in the business of service, through software. Our focus has and always will be to keep our ears to the ground and listen to customers. It has helped us continuously develop the product and services to support their hyper-scale ambitions without sacrificing the adaptability needed to prevent disruption,” Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee, said in a statement. “More than ever before, businesses need their subscription revenue platform to be the reliable system of record that enables them to rapidly scale their revenue processes,” according to Subramanian.
The company said, last year many enterprises introduced new revenue models to enrol their users for a subscription-led model to ensure a steady flow of revenue. According to a research, the pandemic has fast-paced the market for recurring bill payments which is estimated to grow to USD 17.8 billion by 2025.
Also read: American hedge fund Tiger Global steps up investments in India
Managing recurring payments of thousands of users is a little complex than billing them for onetime purchase. These would include users wanting to change their subscription type, shift from trial period to paid model, among others.
Chargebee said its system is capable of onboarding its clients within 10 days, ensuring little to no time wastage. The company works with 3,000 clients in online learning, video conferencing, and retail space among other categories.
With this funding, American hedge fund Tiger Global has scored another unicorn this month when the fund led or partook in five investments that gave birth to new unicorns in the country. Four months into 2021, India has spawned 12 unicorns, more than the 11 it had for the whole last year.
