Illustration of money and financial graphs

Skio Raises $3.7M to Help Shopify Merchants Sell Subscriptions

Fintech and infrastructure startup Skio raises $3.7M to help Shopify merchants sell subscriptions.

Since Skio’s launch in April 2021, the fintech and infrastructure startup has raised $3.7 million in seed funding to help Shopify merchants sell subscriptions. Founded by software engineer Kennan Davison, Skio’s goal is to help make it easier for merchants to sell subscriptions simply and easily. Davison got his start in high school where he skipped class to work on web development for a subscription box startup, Conscious Box. From there, he went to Hulu where he built an app for managing subscription discounts, and then onto Pinterest where he was a growth engineer focused on A/B tests to increase user conversions. He also has experience at Y Combinator and Wieden + Kennedy.

“With Skio, I’m taking everything I learned to build the best subscription experience ever for you and your customers,” Davison said.

Investors

The seed round was led by venture capital fund Adjacent and Nico Wittenborn. Other early investors include Y Combinator; James Besh, founder of Magic Mind; Jeremy Cai, founder and CEO of Italic; Shaan Puri, co-host of My First Million; Julian Shapiro, co-founder of Demand Curve; Lauren Jarvis, chief business officer of Literati; and others.

Clients

Some of Skio’s customers include Bev, Doe Lashes, MatchaBar, MuddyBites, Red Bay Coffee, Oneblade, Stryx, Quokka Brew and Remedy Organics.

“We started at the bottom of the market with smaller Shopify merchants,” Davison told TechCrunch. “Now we’re migrating bigger customers from ReCharge.”

Based in New York, Skio makes selling subscriptions easier. Here are some of Skio’s benefits, according to their website:

  • Easily migrate from ReCharge, Skio’s biggest competitor, without payment disruption or necessary card updates. Gradual rollouts are also possible. (In two case studies of current customers, Muddy Bites was able to migrate overnight. Stryx migrated their entire subscriber base in 48 hours.)
  • Increase conversions by 72% with one-click checkout via Shop Pay
  • Reduce customer tickets by 60% with passwordless login
  • Get new features automatically with a hosted subscription portal
  • Edit subscriptions 10 times faster
  • Get free customers by giving group subscription discounts
  • Get 24/7 support via email or live chat
Image courtesy of Shopify

According to TechCrunch, Skio is only working with Shopify merchants who sell subscriptions, but Davison hopes to eventually branch out.

Skio offers its services on a month-to-month basis for $299 a month, plus 1% of orders with a subscription and a $0.20 transaction fee, and 3% of group revenue. There is a 60-day free trial unless a new customer is migrating from another service, using SMS or needs custom theme work.

Skio has a small and mighty team of five employees, but they have combined experience from Microsoft, Pinterest, Amazon, Hulu and Redfin. The company plans to use the funding to hire more software engineers, says TechCrunch.

Insider Take

Though there are competitors in this space (e.g., ReCharge and Bold), lead investor Nico Wittenborn told TechCrunch in an email email that Skio seems more flexible than existing solutions. With Davison’s background, knowledge and passion for improvement, and solid financial backing, Skio has a good chance of providing Shopify merchants with a subscription alternative. It will be exciting to watch this company grow and develop as the Skio team expands and more clients sign on.

Up Next

Register Now For Email Subscription News Updates!

Search this site

You May Be Interested in: