ZenCar, a startup that aims to help SaaS companies automate their billing workflows, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round.
Based in New York and Bengaluru, ZenScar is building a platform for SaaS companies to generate invoices for their complex pricing plans – usage-based pricing, subscriptions, special offers, credits, custom currencies, prepaid or ramp deals.
Apurv Bansal, founder of Zenskar, said in an interview that 10 to 15 percent of SaaS companies today have moved to a consumption-based pricing model based on customer demand because of macro trends such as product-led growth, automation and AI. Simple subscriptions will account for only about 30% of the market, with complex subscriptions and consumption-based billing accounting for the rest over the next decade, he predicts.
The market is flooded with similar SaaS billing platforms, but Bansal said ZenScar allows companies Configure the solution with no code and low code without requiring engineers to rely on it.
“Going forward, we believe that engineering bandwidth in companies will be reduced and software solutions need to be taken up by non-technical users,” said Bansal, who previously worked as a product manager at Google. Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal.
Bansal co-founded ZenScar with Sarab Agrawal in March — after surveying more than 120 customers to understand challenges related to billing. “In general, tools are built in a linear way,” Agrawal said. “We thought about Zenscar as a starting point – after talking to a lot of people, try to get the best tool from scratch.”
Bansal and Agrawal are second-time entrepreneurs who previously sold their startups to Snapdeal and music streaming app Ghana respectively.
Zenskar’s proof-of-concept is already running with one customer, and about 12 customers are on the waiting list, Bansal said. The startup targets the US as its market, although a small two-person engineering team works remotely from India. Bansal said they plan to open a physical office in Bengaluru.
The seed funding round was led by Bessemer Ventures Partners and saw participation from Shine Capital, Basecamp Fund and Converge.
“We are excited to partner with ZenScar on their journey to fundamentally disrupt the cash quoting tool for SaaS companies. We are incredibly impressed by their deep understanding of customer pain points and innovative DNA first principles to deliver unique and flexible invoicing software,” said Anant Vidur Puri, Partner, Bessemer Venture. Partners, said in a prepared statement.
Zenskar plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team. It also aims to go beyond SaaS billing to automate accounting, streamline payments and provide analytics for companies in sectors such as telecom, transport, IoT and media.
