Following in the footsteps of payment processing pioneers like Stripe, recurring billing company ChargeBee has its sights set on becoming the go-to recurring billing solution for SaaS startups.

Founded in 2011 and based in India, the company recently raised $5 million in venture capital funding to bring their total funding level to $6.5 million. CEO and co-founder Krish Subramanian claims that ChargeBee now processes $100 million annually for its customers.

ChargeBee was created to fill a gap in the in the market where fast growing startups needed to automate recurring billing operations apart from simple payment processing. ChargeBee’s corporate website identifies itself as “your off-the-shelf plug-&-play billing solution delivered on the cloud.”

As Subramanian told TechCrunch, “Billing is an amazing opportunity for conversation with customers but also a point of friction if not done well. In a subscription-based business model, it becomes crucial to deliver amazing customer experience in billing as much as your product and we focus on delivering this on top of global payment gateways like Stripe & Braintree.”

On its website ChargeBee claims “powerful subscription management” where users see “flexible trial periods, custom billing intervals and powerful discounts; mix and match pricing models with unlimited flexibility for better conversions.” The software also has features that include billing management, insights and analytics, and third party software integration.

There are three subscription tiers available with no setup costs. The Silver Plan costs $79/month and includes 200 invoices, the Gold Plan costs $149/month and includes 1,000 invoices, and the Platinum Plan costs $249/month and includes 2,000 invoices. All three levels come with the following features:

• Credit Card Billing
• Invoice Billing
• Smart Dunning (debt collection) Management
• Role Based Access
• Email Notifications
• Hosted Payment Pages
• Customer Portal
• Theme Gallery
• API Access & Support
• Reporting & Analytics
• Third Party Integrations
• Unlimited Trial Customers
• Priority Email Support

The Gold Plan comes with Priority Phone Support while the Platinum Plan includes both Priority Phone Support and SLA Support.

Insider Take

ChargeBee is hoping to be the go-to source for recurring billing in an ever-crowded payment-processing world. Time will tell if they accomplish their goals. Subscription owners employing new credit card processing solutions need to test first and understand what they’re using – not just the technology but understand their own limitations first. We encourage anyone to test out new providers like ChargeBee, but if your business lacks the agility to accept the potential bumps in the road that may spring up, caution is the word of the day.