Ecommerce subscriptions platform ReCharge raises $277M

ReCharge, a subscription payments management platform for ecommerce companies, has raised $277 million in what is the seven-year-old company’s first ever round of funding.

The raise comes as consumer brands across the spectrum have had to adapt to a new commercial landscape, both in response to the global pandemic which has impacted how consumers buy things, but also due to a broader push toward direct-to-consumer (D2C) relationships that seeks to take more control by bypassing conventional retail outlets and target customers directly.

Founded out of Santa Monica in 2014, ReCharge offers a range of billing and payment management tools, with support for payment providers including Stripe, Braintree, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and more. It also integrates with many of the prominent commerce tools so support discounts, free trials, taxes, and shipping as part of its subscription billing platform, while those who would rather make a one-time purchase — rather than commit to a weekly or monthly delivery — are also catered for.

Custom commerce

Through its APIs, businesses can customize their subscription offering and create their own workflows, with support for a so-called “headless” architecture where the front-end content and backend technology are separated — this enables more freedom to combine technologies for each touchpoint.

“Recharge is focused on building a cloud-based subscription management platform for businesses of all sizes,” ReCharge cofounder and CEO Oisin O’Connor told VentureBeat. “We take an API-first approach to our product development, which allows a high-level of customization by our most sophisticated merchants; while most merchants still use our product out-of-box to start offering subscriptions within minutes.”

Tying into this is performance measurement and analytics, which gives businesses insights into their revenue and customers, letting them track their key performance indicators (KPIs) and carry out cohort analyses to improve retention and figure out why customers cancel their subscription.

The company, which said that it’s cash-flow positive, claims to power subscriptions for 15,000 merchants covering 20 million users, including men’s grooming brand Harry’s and U.K. craft beer giant BrewDog, which entered the subscription sphere last year.

While there are other similar players in this space, including Bold Commerce which raised $27 million a few months back, ReCharge is particularly standout for its fairly under-the-radar status — it was entirely bootstrapped through to its $277 million growth capital fundraise last year (unannounced until today), and it has now secured big-name backers including Iconiq Growth, Summit Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures.