Chennai-based start-up raises USD 5 m for managing billing, subscription needs

Online subscription billing service ChargeBee, that helps companies manage their billing and subscription needs, is the latest investment for Tiger Global in India.

ChargeBee recently closed a deal of USD 5 million Series B round led by the New York-headquartered investment fund, with participation from previous backer Accel - which put together ChargeBee's USD800,000 Series A round last year.

ChargeBee, a Chennai-based start-up founded in 2011, is focused on helping other startups, particularly those in the Saas Space, get more from their billing subscriptions. It counts Freshdesk, Kissflow, Soylent and VinylMePlease as its customers, which include companies in the U.S., Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

San Francisco-based Techcrunch.com quoted ChargeBee CEO and co-founder Krish Subramanian, as saying, "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 and Braintree."

Subramanian said ChargeBee will use the funds to set up satellite offices in the U.S., UK and Australia, although its base in Chennai - where it has 37 staff - will remain its primary location. ChargeBee also plans to "double down" on its engineering team to develop additional value-add services for customers, such as advanced analytics.

ChargeBee is currently processing USD 100 million in annual transactions for its customers,

Subramanian said the company is unlikely to raise new funding for another two years. He added that it could turn a profit "very soon," but is currently focused on growth.