RevenueCat, a leading subscription management platform for apps monetized through in-app purchases, is now flush with new capital as it expands on the web. The company closed a $12 million Series C round led by Adjacent, following the launch of a new product, RevenueCat Billing, which allows web application developers to integrate subscription purchases into any site Web. Later it will also support Roku.
The timing of the product launch is notable, as it comes amid the implementation of the European Digital Markets Regulation (DMA), which requires Apple to re-open the iPhone and App Store. As a result, Apple initially blocked iPhone web apps (Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs) in the EU, likely fearing that developers would abandon its App Store, before reversing the decision under regulatory pressure.
For RevenueCat, however, the upcoming changes to iOS – not to mention Apple’s refusal to reduce its default commission rate from 15% to 30% – mean that there are now more developers turning to the web to monetize their applications.
“This could be for progressive web apps or any type of customer who wants to make payments outside of the App Store,” says RevenueCat CEO Jacob Eiting of the new web billing product. “It’s going to meet all the new (DMA) rules…it’s going to be a pretty significant product expansion for us,” he said.
The company says it has moved in this direction due to interest from developers. Even if they didn’t have a web application, many developers wanted to move their customers to the web to pay.
Although Stripe already enables this feature, developers have been missing a system specifically designed for consumer subscription apps. Now, even if developers process payments through Stripe or others, they get their data and information in the same format and in the same dashboard where they already manage their in-app purchases data. This makes it easier for them to focus on how their subscription apps monetize overall, regardless of where the payment comes from (web or mobile).
Although Apple has historically not allowed app developers to direct customers to the web from their iOS apps, it has allowed driving from other channels, like the developer’s website or e-mails. -emails addressed to customers. EU DMA rules should also allow developers to direct customers to the web from their mobile apps.
With RevenueCat Billing, essentially a web SDK, developers can accept subscription payments from any website. It joins other recent product releases such as Paywall, Targeting, and Experiments, all of which are designed to help developers increase their revenue. Today, RevenueCat manages subscriptions in more than 30,000 applications and manages more than $2 billion in subscriptions annually, it says.
Adjacent’s new Series C (led by Nico Wittenborn — a Series A investor, now a board member) totals $12 million. Other investors include Y Combinator, Index Ventures, Volo Ventures and SaaStr Fund. Prior to this round, RevenueCat had raised $56 million, bringing its total raise to over $68 million.
As well as fueling its new products, the fundraising will help RevenueCat expand into new markets, including Japan and South Korea.
“Our main competition is ‘DIY monetization technology yourself,’” Miguel Carranza, CTO and co-founder of RevenueCat, said in a statement regarding fundraising and expansions. “In the US, we’ve done a good job educating developers, product managers, marketers, and CEOs about the challenges of building in-house. In many other regions, there is unfortunately still a tendency for companies to invest valuable resources into something that provides no differentiation or value to that company’s end users. We are investing in these regions by expanding our support for local languages and currencies later this year, deepening our relationships with local technology partners and agencies, as well as hiring in-market where possible,” a- he added.
Image credits: IncomeCat
RevenueCat is not yet a profitable company, but Eiting says profitability is still on the horizon. The company still has the money it raised in 2021 and now has over $40 million in the bank, in addition to around $20 million in ARR. Its burn rate has also halved since last summer.
“There are so many things we can build by deploying capital and doing it on a profitable basis, it would only slow us down at the moment. So even if there is access to capital, which is not always the case… the best thing for our clients and investors is to take more capital and deploy it faster,” he said. told TechCrunch.
“RevenueCat is too important for too many applications to risk the company heading towards a financial cliff. This may go against the dominant narrative of how venture-backed companies should be built, but our investors are aligned with us and know that Miguel and I are running the company to maximize value for developers. Investors make more money when developers make more money,” the CEO added in a blog post. “To that end, we still aim to take the company public within this decade,” he said.
techcrunch
