Subscription revenue management platform Chargebee pledged $5 billion in free processing this week to support early-stage startups. Qualifying companies will get access to Chargebee’s subscription revenue management platform and services at no cost until they have earned $100,000 in revenue, doubling the company’s previous limit through their Launch Program. With this pledge, Chargebee hopes to help 50,000 early stage startups over the next two years process $5 billion in recurring revenue.

“The post-covid economy has opened up possibilities for a new breed of startups. Traditionally ‘non-scalable’ businesses like learning, fitness, health, and more break down geographic and market barriers by moving to a digital subscription-based business model. This fund will allow these innovative startups to build and scale their revenue without impacting their current cash flow,” said Krish Subramanian, co-founder and CEO of Chargebee, in the company’s March 16 announcement.

Omar Nawaz, chief product officer, also commented on the subscription revenue management platform’s commitment to supporting early stage startups to transition to the subscription model.

“The first $100K is the most difficult phase in a startup’s journey, as it struggles to identify the right value metrics and product-market fit. This pledge gives businesses the ability to use Chargebee’s capabilities to experiment with pricing, rethink packaging, and scale revenue operations in this critical discovery phase of their business,” Nawaz said.

Launch Program

This new pledge builds on Chargebee’s success with their Launch Program. Since 2016, more than 10,000 early stage startups have used the Launch Program to use Chargebee’s revenue management platform for free for their first $50,000 in revenue. Cocoon, a “pandemic-ready” social and learning club for families, has been a part of Chargebee’s Launch Program.

“For many startups, it’s difficult to spend a lot on technology up-front. Chargebee’s Launch Program plan allowed us to test our billing and subscription management workflows in a risk-free proposition. Providing that for startups speaks a lot about Chargebee’s commitment to growing the ecosystem and offering founders the ability to experiment and grow,” said Karl Chong, Cocoon CEO.

Chargebee started its subscription revenue management platform business in 2011. More than 10,000 SaaS startups use Chargebee’s platform to manage subscriptions, free trials, price modeling, billing, invoicing, payments and revenue recognition. Chargebee integrates with popular applications including Zapier, Mailchimp, Slack Quickbooks, Salesforce, Hubspot, Baremetrics, ChartMogul, Pipedrive, Xero, Intercom and Avalara.

Insider Take

For Chargebee, this is a no brainer. They have already supported 10,000 early stage startups through their Launch Program. By expanding their commitment, they are likely to attract additional startups to try their platform. Not all companies will stay with Chargebee, but once they try it, they are unlikely to leave unless the user experience is flawed. Reaching 50,000 more businesses in two years is quite ambitious for Chargebee, but this will force them to push themselves. That goes without saying Chargebee needs to have the right infrastructure (e.g., human resources, technology, etc.) in place to support such an endeavor. Assuming they do, this is a great way for the subscription revenue management platform to grow their business while assisting others. Win, win.