Chargebee in the Unicorn Club

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Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-up Chargebee has raised a new $125 million round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures and current investors Tiger Global and Insight Venture Partners, valuing the company at $1.4 billion. The US and Chennai-based start-up, led by co-founder and CEO Krish Subramanian, automates revenue operations for subscription-based companies.

The company’s value has tripled as a result of the most recent funding round, which included current investor Steadview Capital. In October 2020, the company raised $55 million at a valuation of about $500 million. So far, Chargebee has raised $230 million in funding.

The funds will be used to broaden the company’s global presence and partner network, according to a statement. Chargebee says that its services are used by over 17,000 companies around the world. Chargebee claims that its software is simple to implement; even large global organizations will complete onboarding in less than 10 days.

“The global pandemic has intensified the already-growing transition from cars to coffee providers to SaaS and subscription-based business models. “Over the next five years, demand for shifting into a recurring revenue stream is projected to rise at a 17.5 percent CAGR,” according to the company.

The global SaaS market is projected to reach $276 billion by FY24, according to IDC. According to Nasscom, revenue for pure-play Indian SaaS companies could increase sixfold to $13-15 billion by FY25 from $2.5 billion in FY20, implying that pure-play Indian SaaS companies’ market share could increase to about 5% by FY25 from around 2% in FY20.

The advent and adoption of emerging technologies such as cloud, web, RPA, AI, and the like over the last 5-10 years has not only enabled increased penetration of the SaaS business model but also brought in new verticals/areas where SaaS can be deployed, according to Credit Suisse’s study on 100 unicorns.

Chargebee is the second SaaS company to receive new funding this week, following Druva, which raised $147 million from a group of investors at a valuation of more than $2 billion. Tiger Global, headquartered in the United States, has been investing heavily in Indian start-ups. It led to investments in a slew of local tech companies earlier this month, including Groww and Mohalla Tech, propelling them into the billion-dollar club.  

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