Pret A Manger's coffee subscription platform provider Chargebee just raised $55m

A US fintech which is helping Pret A Manger customers and cautious office workers order their morning latte by subscription has secured $55m (£42m) in a Series F funding round.

Chargebee helps firms deal with recurring billing. Its subscription platform is used by startups to big businesses like cloud software company Okta and Pret A Manger.

According to Pret's CEO Pano Christou speaking to The Guardian, the coffee and sandwich chain sold 16,500 of its £20/month unlimited coffee subscriptions on its launch day with Chargebee during the pandemic, as cautious customers opted for the speed of a subscription coffee.

Chargebee’s technology helps businesses to automate subscriptions as well as billings and invoicing and is supported by Stripe and Paypal.

Chargebee believes there is a big shift underway as businesses look to introduce subscription-first models.

It has now raised $55m (£42m) in a Series F funding led by Insight Partners.

Chargebee says the funding will be used to launch new products.

“Chargebee will be enhancing its product and integration ecosystem to enable these businesses to experiment and launch increasingly sophisticated revenue models," the company said.

Krish Subramanian, co-founder and CEO of Chargebee, said: “We believe that a steady SaaS-i-fication of the market is already underway, with traditional businesses replicating the best practices of SaaS pricing and business models even outside the realm of software.”

“Subscription businesses today have to be ready at all times to identify and leverage market opportunities rapidly.”

“Even beyond SaaS and software, we’re seeing a global movement where businesses from cars to coffee pods are launching and scaling with a subscription-first model," said AJ Malhotra, vice president at Insight Venture Partners.

“The need for an underlying revenue platform that allows businesses this degree of adaptability is paramount today. We’re excited to be partnering with Chargebee in this space."

UPDATE 2020-10-09 - The word "payment provider" was added to the headline for clarity, but was subsequently changed to "platform provider Chargebee" to better explain Chargebee's role. The Guardian has been attributed as the source of Pret CEO Pano Christou's quote on selling 16,500 coffee subscriptions during the launch day of its service.