20 Things You Didn’t Know About ReCharge
ReCharge is a technology company that specializes in providing subscription management software for e-commerce businesses. This company has gone from a fledgling, small operations to a leader in its sector of the software industry in a short time. To help you become more familiar with what ReCharge is, its rise to success, and its potential to disrupt the e-commerce industry, here are 20 things you didn’t know about ReCharge.
1. ReCharge is a SaaS company
According to Techcrunch, ReCharge is a software company that provides subscription management software for e-commerce businesses. It is classified as a Software-As-A-Service enterprise. It provides a subscription-based billing and payments platform for its clients.
2. ReChage is a cloud-based provider
The ReCharge platform is cloud-based. This means that it is available on cloud servers for use, which saves a lot of space on the client servers. It’s not a product that takes up room on company servers so it doesn’t slow down other processes. The services provided by ReCharge began as billing and payments only, but it has evolved in recent years to include more useful features, which has attracted a large client base who benefit from the added benefits that allow them to cut operating costs find boost revenues. The management aspect has been a feature that has increased subscription rates for ReCharge, and it’s also given them an edge over the competition.
3. ReCharge is disrupting the billing and payment industry
ReCharge is providing software services that are unique within its niche of the industry. The founders of the company first identified issues within the current system that needed attention to developing a unique approach to its platform. They found numerous different nuanced needs within the market and built their product with full features that cover a broad spectrum of not previously addressed issues, which gives them an edge over competitors. This gives them the power to disrupt the industry by offering a more full-spectrum product than other providers.
4. ReCharge offers scalable services
Another benefit that ReCharge has to offer is that it’s scalable. As a provider, the enterprise offers products that work for clients with all sizes of companies. The software is scalable to be compatible with the scale of their platform and it’s easy to adapt with the current setup within most companies. It works from the smallest merchants to the largest brands. This was smart planning that opened up a larger target audience for marketing the products.
5. ReCharge thrived without much external help
Andrew Collins is a managing director at Summit Partners, one of the financial backers of ReCharge. He shared that his company was impressed with ReCharge because of how well it managed to grow and expand without much outside assistance. The business grew using the funds that it generated through subscription services for years before welcoming investing firms to fuel even greater expansion efforts. Collins cited ReCharge as a disciplined and efficient business.
6. ReCharge’s popularity has spurred organic growth
While some companies spent millions of dollars on advertising and marketing budgets, ReCharge has not needed to put that much of an effort into its marketing campaigns. Andrew Collins of Summit Partners further points out that the initial customers loved the service so much that the benefits of going with ReCharge were quickly shared by word-of-mouth advertising. This shows how much clients love the platform and it also fueled a strong organic growth of the business. This fact helped to save a lot on its marketing and advertisement budget, allowing ReCharge to invest more of its profits back into product diversity, improvement, and expansion efforts.
7. ReCharge has grown despite the pandemic
While some companies have closed their doors forever due to the recent Coronavirus pandemic, ReCharge seems to have benefited. It was a surprise to some to see that some categories of clientele increased their subscriber base. For example, e-commerce sites that sell beauty care products were a part of the subscriber base that grew by 120 percent. With more people staying at home, with more time to attend to personal care, this niche of the retail industry has taken off, and it has been good for ReCharge as well. In general, categorical rises averaged between 100 percent to 147 percent growth. Subscription rates for ReCharge grew overall for 2020 by an amazing 91 percent across the board factoring in all industry categories, suggesting that the pandemic, as well as the rising numbers of physical subscriptions and direct-to-consumer buying, contributed to the growing trend.
8. ReCharge has achieved unicorn status
ReCharge has received a few rounds of venture capital funding. It recently raised $227 million in a Series B growth round that gave the company a tremendous financial boost, but it was a unicorn even before the infusion of new funds. The most current round pushed ReCharge to a valuation of $2.1 billion, which is double the required amount to qualify for unicorn status. It now belongs to an exclusive group of companies that have earned a valuation of at least $1 billion or more.
9. ReCharge is a rag to riches story
We also learned that ReCharge is a company that started on a limited budget. When it first launched its first limited products in 2014, ReCharge was a bare-bones company from California that operated under bootstrapped conditions. The owners reinvested proceeds into the business and opted to not seek outside funding to grow the operation. It went from being a bootstrapped business to a unicorn. The first round of Series A funding was not closed until January of 2020, raising $50 million to make it possible to loosen up the purse strings to begin development on new and improved products for consumers.
10. ReCharge processes billions in payments
We also learned that over the last five years, the amount of payments processed by ReCharge is astounding. It has processed more than $5.3 billion in transactions since it first started doing business in 2014. This shows how well the platform has been received by its target audience.
11. ReCharge serves 15,000 plus businesses
We were curious about how many clients ReCharge serves with its SaaS platform. We were shocked to learn that the company has secured agreements from 15,000 businesses of varying sizes from small to large. From these customers, ReCharge has gained 20 million subscribers. It’s an astronomical number that serves subscribers across 180 different countries throughout the world.
12. ReCharge has plans to expand into other markets
ReCharge is already a unicorn company but it has plans to go even bigger and explore yet more market opportunities. Current strategic plans are in motion to secure other geographic markets into European countries. In addition, it’s looking at expanding into Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Magento, and BigCommerce, just to name a few. It’s hoping to broaden its acquisition scope to further accelerate expansion into certain market domains. It’s almost mind-boggling to consider the true potential of ReCharge if it’s true that they’ve just begun to scratch the surface of market potential. New marketing strategies and new features added to current products could take the business into new territories of success.
13. ReCharge is run by a small executive team
One would almost expect an enterprise with a huge valuation that is double that of unicorn status to have a large executive team. This isn’t the case for ReCharge, however. The company has a team of just 6 members. They’ve established a strong and successful track record by keeping it on a bootstrapped, no waste structure and it’s worked very well for ReCharge. According to Crunchbase, the executive leadership team is made up of Mychael Flynn, CTO, and co-founder, Rob Barr, head of partnerships and growth, Nicholas Mackey, the Frontend principal software engineer, Stephannie Lemmerman, chief financial officer, Chathri Ali, the COO, and Oisin O-Connor, co-founder and chief executive officer.
14. ReCharge is an early stage venture-capital-backed company
Although ReCharge has far exceeded unicorn status, it still qualifies as an early-stage venture capital company. Because of the hesitancy of the founders to accept outside help, it has achieved success before allowing investors in on the enterprise. ReCharge agreed to accept funding for the first time in January of 2020 with a Series A round that raised $50 million. A second-round brought in an additional $227 million, closing on May 6, 2021.
15. ReCharge has only 3 investors
While some of the larger venture-capital-backed firms are supported by dozens of investors, ReCharge has kept the numbers low. There are just 3 investors who have provided funding for the company. Summit Partners led the round of Series A funding. The most recent round of funding added Bain capital Ventures and Iconiq Growth to its list of financial supporters. although there were likely others who were interested in the investment opportunity, ReCharge likes to keep it small and retain control of the enterprise. It doesn’t even have a board of directors yet.
16. ReCharge is run by a complicated array of dozes of technologies
It takes a lot of different technologies to power the ReCharge website and the platform that makes it easier for its clients to operate. While the technology is blended to create a seamless user experience, it gets hairy behind the scenes. ReCharge is actively using a total of 66 technologies for its website. This is delivered through 38 different technology products. jQuery, Google Analytics, HTML5, Viewport Meta, and iPhone/Mobile Compatible are just a few of the tech products in operation.
17. ReCharge is the most popular in the United States
ReCharge has grown in its monthly visits by a rate of 2.03 percent. The average monthly visitor count for the website is 178,151. The statistics for the company show that 82 percent of its visitors come from the United States. There is a 9.76 growth rate in visitors from the United Kingdom with approximately 110,665 unique visits. Other countries showing interested browsers include India, Australia, and Canada with a 5.1 percent growth in visitors.
18. ReCharge sponsored a Summit
So far, ReCharge has only sponsored one massive marketing event. On May 29, 2019, it sponsored the Subscription Summit 2019. The tent features 83 speakers dedicated to a conference that was devoted exclusively to anyone working in the subscription box industry. The event was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and ran for three days, concluding on May 31, 2019. Leaders shared their insights and experiences to help those who work within this rapidly growing industry. This was a way for bringing everyone together to share their ideas and concerns to identify and problem-solve some yet unresolved issues that exist within the industry.
19. ReCharge is a privately held organization
ReCharge is not a company that you will find listed on any of the world’s stock exchanges. They’ve decided not to take the company to the public arena so there are no shares of ReCharge available to invest in. It’s tough to get in as an investor in this tightly run enterprise. When they did allow investors in, they kept the number down to just 3. This was for expansion into new territory and to expand upon the features of the current platform. So far, there has been no discussion about the possibility of ReCharge ever filing its IPO.
20. ReCharge is just scratching the surface
Although it’s hard to imagine that This $2.1 billion company could grow any bigger, there are strategic plans in place to begin making acquisitions of other tech companies to do just that. Although they haven’t fully disclosed which services will be added to the existing platform, it’s been confirmed that they’re working on new features that will cover yet more markets and explore previously untapped markets. This is likely just the beginning for ReCharge. Based on previous and current performance, it’s likely that this is going to become one of the largest companies of its type in the world shortly.
