Recharge acquired Skio, a Y Combinator-backed subscription billing platform, for $105 million in cash. The deal marks a rare win for capital efficiency. Skio raised only $8 million total before the exit, yet still commanded a nine-figure valuation.
Founder and former CEO built the company to solve a specific problem. Subscription merchants struggle with failed payments, churn, and billing complexity. Skio automated dunning, retry logic, and revenue recovery for brands managing recurring revenue models.
The subscription billing market exploded as D2C commerce matured. Companies like Bold, Recurly, and Stripe Billing competed for the same wedge. Recharge, the larger player in the space, opted to acquire rather than compete head-to-head, folding Skio's technology into its platform.
The acquisition signals two things. First, subscription infrastructure remains valuable if it solves real unit economics problems for merchants. Second, founders don't need massive capital raises to build exit-worthy companies. Skio proved that lean operations and product-market fit beat bloated burn rates.
The deal closed recently, though terms around earnouts or contingencies remain undisclosed beyond the headline figure.