Establishing monthly and annual recurring revenue has long been the gold standard to measure SaaS companies and the prospects of their businesses. For e-commerce businesses, facing increased competition and higher acquisition costs, creating recurring revenues through subscriptions is one of the things they can do to normalize their revenue streams and build higher lifetime values for each customer. While there have been many solutions that can handle the infrastructure portion of recurring payments, not much attention has been paid to managing the customer relationship. Upscribe is a platform designed specifically for high-growth subscription direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands to optimize the customer relationship and, in turn, revenue derived. The company focuses on reducing churn and increasing retention, allowing customers to skip shipments, swap products, and change order frequency and shipping details seamlessly. Upscribe also offers data insights for merchants that can help them on the acquisition side and the platform seamlessly integrates with existing providers already found in the merchant’s technology stack. Founded in 2019, the Santa Monica-based startup is already profitable.
LA TechWatch caught up with Founder and CEO Dileepan Siva to learn more about the trends that are leading to the “SaaS-ification” of e-commerce, the company’s future plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Upscribe closed a $4 million seed financing round, led by venture capital firm Uncork Capital. Leaders Fund and The House Fund also participated in the round, as well as Fahd Ananta, of Shopify Angels and Roach Capital and Laura Behrens Wu, cofounder and CEO of Shippo.
Tell us about your product or service.
Upscribe enables subscription-first D2C brands to drive subscriber growth, reduce churn, and customize customer experience. Brands using Upscribe can allow customers to skip shipments, swap products, and change order frequency with a click, text, or email. To further encourage retention, customers can make one-off changes to an upcoming shipment, from changing a shipping address when traveling or gifting a product. Brands can also grow subscribers by upselling products to customers throughout the subscriber lifecycle, from checkout to post-purchase.
Merchants using Upscribe are also armed with data-driven insights around subscriber preferences and behaviors, allowing them to optimize their businesses and scale subscriber retention and growth. Brands can access cancellation and upsell flows that reflect data trends across the Upscribe’s entire merchant ecosystem, fostering stronger customer relationships.
What inspired the start of Upscribe?
Upscribe was founded in 2019, after I recognized the consumer shift to buying physical products, such as consumer-packaged goods, on a recurring basis. I noticed that this mirrored the rise of subscriptions in the digital and streaming world and recognized its potential as the next wave of e-commerce.
But while the D2C subscription market is projected to reach $478 billion by 2025, existing market solutions were focused on processing transactions, not customer relationships. D2C e-commerce brands were left with fragmented customer experiences, inflexible technology, and lackluster features.
How is it different?
Upscribe takes a merchant-centric approach, with customizable features that empower fast-growing e-commerce brands to grow and scale subscriptions.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Right now, we’ve been focused on mid-market merchants with an emphasis on those in the food and beverage; health and wellness; health and beauty; and home goods sectors. With our capital raise, we’re starting to work with emerging merchants that are scaling.
What’s your business model?
Software-as-a-service.
How has the business impacted by COVID-19?
E-commerce leaped forward a decade during the pandemic and subscription-first brands benefited even more.
What was the funding process like?
Investors were keen to engage given both the massive inflection point in e-commerce growth last year as well as our market traction to date with minimal marketing spend.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Understanding the value add of specific investors given the capital market environment.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Bootstrapped and profitable, clear product-market fit and expertise in eCommerce enablement
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’re looking to scale the team from single to double digits and invest even more resources in product-led growth as well as marketing.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Focus on serving early adopter customers as lean as possible.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Enabling the next wave of eCommerce, subscription-first brands.
What is your favorite restaurant in LA?
Bavel.
