Irish-led Chargify likely to merge as part of $150m investment

Chargify, a US tech company led by Dubliner Paul Lynch and owned by Irish entrepreneur Ed Byrne's Scaleworks, looks set to merge with another firm as part of a multimillion dollar investment.

Battery Ventures, a well-known venture capital firm that has backed over 300 companies, including Coinbase, N26 and Irish edtech Learnosity, is behind the deal.

The VC, which earlier this year closed a new $400 million fund, is investing more than $150 million (€ 124.5 million) into Chargify and SaaSOptics. These are two complementary, cloud software platforms that manage billing and automate related financial functions including payments, revenue recognition and analytics.

The two companies combined have more than 2,000 customers and manage more than $10 billion in customer annual recurring revenue.

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Chargify, which is based in San Antonio, Texas, was established in 2009. The company was acquired in 2016 by Scaleworks a $150 million venture equity fund co-founded by former Hosting 365 general manager Mr Byrne and Rackspace founder Lew Moorman. The company announced 50 jobs for Dublin in October as it opened new European headquarters locally.

Excitement

“It’s with immense excitement that we announce the coming together of Chargify and SaaSOptics through the $150 million investment of Battery Ventures. This is a massive day for both organisations and creates an entity moving forward with unparalleled product excellence in the billing, subscription management and financial operations space,” said Mr Lynch.

SaaSOptics, which has developed a popular subscription management platform, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We are thrilled to partner with both SaaSOptics and Chargify, each of which has built a powerful business in their respective financial-software markets,” said Chelsea Stoner, a Battery Ventures general partner.

“Both companies’ growing businesses highlight the fact that today’s software companies require more robust billing and revenue solutions, driven in large part by new, usage-based, cloud models. We are excited to invest in more innovative products that help all software companies better manage their businesses,” she added.