Chargebee and Razorpay partner to bring SaaS subscription businesses in India

By Leandra Monteiro

Chargebee, a subscription management platform, announced it has partnered with Razorpay, India’s full-stack financial solutions company, to offer subscription billing services in India. The partnership highlights Chargebee’s commitment to customer growth and globalisation with expanded capabilities to navigate complex business issues in India and beyond.

“We were born in India, just four friends in a small apartment in Chennai thinking of how to solve a problem, and then cut our teeth in the US and Europe working with customers of all sizes to help them start and grow businesses,” said Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee. “We are now excited to leverage those lessons learned to service a fast-maturing SaaS ecosystem experiencing exponential growth.”

Chargebee’s expansion into India comes as the country has become one of the fastest-growing SaaS markets in the world. Indian SaaS companies are expected to reach $30 billion in revenue by 2025. Subscription businesses are also on the rise, and recurring payments in India have undergone a series of transformations with the launch of UPI AutoPay to enable e-mandate and meet the RBI guidelines enacted in Oct 2021. Chargebee’s partnership with Razorpay is optimised for collecting recurring revenues across Cards, UPI mandates and Netbanking mandates, which is aimed at helping merchants provide these preferred payment options to their customers.

Speaking on the partnership, Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer at Razorpay said, “Today, India is one of the largest markets in the world for the subscription economy. Post the recent announcement of RBI regulations on Additional Factor Authentication (AFA), it has further strengthened consumer trust in online payments, thereby bringing over 900 million debit cardholders onto the subscription platform. With an intent to further grow the subscription economy, we are pleased to partner with Chargebee, a company that’s emerging to be a global pioneer in subscription payments. Razorpay’s expertise in building tech-first solutions for businesses paired with Chargebee’s expertise would enable us to collectively create a stronger and a more robust financial backbone for subscription-based businesses in the country.”

Chargebee offers subscription billing and revenue management capabilities, while also managing complex regulatory requirements around e-invoicing, GST, TDS and the RBI’s e-mandate. Last month, Chargebee launched e-invoicing capabilities and the functionality to support Tax Deduction at Source (“TDS”).

“By building a solution specific to the needs in the region, we are proud to offer an end-to-end billing solution that can integrate with APIs, tax services, payment gateways and more to bolster India’s booming SaaS economy,” said Rajaraman Santhanam, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder at Chargebee.

One of the challenges for companies doing business in India has been managing the government mandate around e-invoicing compliance that became compulsory for businesses with turnover over 20cr. (£2.03 million) from 1st April 2022. Chargebee’s solutions for e-invoicing compliance and the provision to record TDS help companies easily navigate these requirements with ease while allowing them to focus on other value-adding activities for the business. With Chargebee’s latest release, the platform helps merchants clearly define and call out taxes paid, thereby helping companies grow without being concerned about compliance.