Since the beginning of 2021, India has witnessed many startups entering the ‘Unicorn‘ club. Even though the country is struggling to keep up with the ongoing pandemic crisis, many companies have got a chance to grow tremendously. Since almost everything has gone digital, many brands that provide products and services through an online platform have become the latest trend.
Chargebee, a startup that helps enterprises with subscription billing and revenue management, has raised $125 million in funding and is now valued at $1.4 billion, becoming the 11th Unicorn of 2021 in India.
The funding round was co-led by new investor Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Tiger Global and Insight Venture Partners, along with participation from another existing investor, Steadview Capital.
Krish Subramanian, co-founder, and the CEO said during a Zoom call, “The pandemic has accelerated the shift to software-as-a-service subscription models. Every business from streamed content to e-commerce to e-learning has become subscription-based, needs global pricing and recurring billing systems.”
With this fresh round of investments, the company will be increasing its investment in its global expansion and key partnerships. In a statement to The Hindu, Krish briefed his plans about the investment received and said, “We’ll increase our investment in R&D to continue building the most innovative, subscription management platform as well as our sales and marketing to better serve customers from startups to large global enterprises. We’ll increase investment in all customer service and support functions.”
Chargebee currently has 3,000 customers, mostly based in the U.S. and Europe, including brands such as cloud software Okta. Indian software firms like Freshworks, Calendly, Linux Academy, and Japanese tech giant Fujitsu are also amongst them. As per the company, its revenue has doubled in the last twelve months, and currently has an estimated ARR of $50 million.
The company was founded in 2011, by Krish Subramanian, Rajaraman Santhanam, KP Saravanan, and Thiyagarajan.
