DealHub Enters Usage-Based Billing World With Subzee Purchase

Revenue platform DealHub has acquired usage-based billing firm Subzee.

The deal expands DealHub into a “complete quote-to-revenue platform” the company said in a news release Tuesday (June 27).

“As the adoption of new pricing schemes, such as usage-based pricing, continue gaining momentum, organizations are struggling to incorporate these new models into their existing revenue streams,” the company said.

This has led to increased complexity when generating accurate billing schedules and forecasts, as well as effectively tracking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) metrics, revenue recognition and sales compensation.

The company said its new billing capabilities — which let it process and consolidate consumption data from multiple sources, and automatically associate relevant subscription plans and rates — makes this process much easier.

“PLG, self-service portals and usage-based pricing have rapidly emerged as key revenue streams, yet existing billing solutions are unable to effectively incorporate them into their revenue flows,” DealHub CEO Eyal Elbahary said in the release. “We chose to incorporate Subzee due to its proven ability to provide CFOs a single source of truth across all revenue streams.”

Based in Austin, Texas, DealHub says its service allows customers to issue proposals, manage contracts, close deals and automate billing and subscriptions from one platform.

PYMNTS examined the benefits of usage-based billing last year in a conversation with Griff Parry, co-founder and CEO at U.K. FinTech m3ter.

He said many SaaS businesses are using subscription-based pricing and have a set stack — a sales customer relationship management (CRM) tool, invoicing billing platform, finance system or some combination of those — to properly price their goods.

However, when these companies move to adopt usage-based pricing — which involves charging customers only when they use a product or service — Parry said they discover they’ve got a gap in the stack.

“That [subscription pricing] tooling they’re committed to and don’t want to rip it out, doesn’t work well in usage-based scenarios,” he told PYMNTS in an interview.

That’s a gap Parry said m3ter fills, providing a data infrastructure solution to software companies to help them deploy and manage usage-based pricing, optimize their billing and better price and sell their products.

And as PYMNTS research has shown, implementing the billing model is crucial, as consumers expect simple, convenient transactions. Service providers that fail to follow through risk losing those customers.

According to “Streamlining Bill Payment: How Frictionless Experiences Drive Customer Engagement,” 40% of consumers said they are “very” or “extremely” interested in an improved billing experience, with younger and affluent customers the most likely to do so.