Chargebee’s backers eye exit at $1.5 bn valuation

Chargebee founders Krish Subramanian, Saravanan K.P., Rajaraman Santhanam and Thiyagarajan T. (chargebee.com)
Chargebee founders Krish Subramanian, Saravanan K.P., Rajaraman Santhanam and Thiyagarajan T. (chargebee.com)

Summary

In just nine months, Chargebee doubled its valuation from the time it became a unicorn in April 2021.

Early-stage investors in Chargebee, a fintech-focused software as a service (SaaS) provider, are seeking to sell a portion of their stake and are in talks with new and existing institutional investors, three people with direct knowledge of the deal said.

“The early investors are offering the stake at a steep discount," one of the two people said, requesting anonymity. “It could be as low as $1.5 billion."

In February, Chargebee, the subscription management platform, raised $250 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $3.5 billion.

In just nine months, Chargebee doubled its valuation from the time it became a unicorn in April 2021. To date, the company has raised about $468 million in equity funding from investors.

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Chargebee, founded in 2011 by Krish Subramanian, Saravanan K.P., Rajaraman Santhanam and Thiyagarajan T., manages revenue operations for subscription-based businesses for startups and larger enterprises. The company counts Freshworks, Calendly, Doodle and Pret a Manger among its clients.

Chargebee, with offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Salt Lake City, and Chennai, has expanded its services from automating billing operations to managing end-to-end subscription workflows, including revenue operations and compliance.

The company has developed a unified revenue management platform and integrated Brightback, a platform that helps with customer churn and retention. Its platform has also added new payment methods and gateways to help optimize revenue growth for its clients.

In an interview in February, the company said it has expanded with new offices and investments in Australia and partnerships with industry leaders, including GoCardless, Salesforce, Hubspot and PayPal.

Emailed queries sent to the spokesperson for Chargebee did not elicit any response.

“The firm is well-funded and is not looking to raise any primary capital anytime soon; hence, early-stage investors are willing to cash out even at a lower valuation to the last primary round," the second person said, adding that the seed and angel investors have made their returns."

According to a third person, these angel investors have been invested for more than a decade and are seeking an exit now.

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