When SaaStr Fund made the first investment in RevenueCat back in 2018, few would have predicted that this “simple API for managing in-app subscriptions” would become the infrastructure powering 33% of all mobile subscription apps and reach a $500M+ valuation in 2025. And more importantly, revenue and user growth that is accelerating at scale.
The Early Days: Solving a Real Problem (2017-2018)
Jacob Eiting and Miguel Carranza weren’t trying to build a unicorn when they started RevenueCat in 2017. They were two developers who had lived through the nightmare of subscription infrastructure while working at Elevate.
The Problem Was Real: Apple and Google’s app stores weren’t giving developers the data they needed. Basic questions like “What’s our churn rate?” or “What’s the lifetime value of subscribers?” required weeks of developer time to answer. The infrastructure was non-trivial, and every app was rebuilding the same subscription management wheels.
The Timing Was Perfect: The mobile subscription economy was exploding, but the tools were broken. No one else was even building anything like this.
After launching out of Y Combinator in 2018, RevenueCat quickly hit product-market fit. By the time they raised their $1.5 million seed round led by SaaStr Fund, they were already live with 100 apps and had crossed $1 million in tracked revenue.
This is where SaaStr Fund came in as the first major institutional investor, recognizing the massive opportunity in mobile monetization infrastructure.
The SaaStr Fund Thesis: Mobile Subscriptions Will Explode. Managing Them Will Remain a Headache.
When Jason Lemkin and SaaStr Fund invested in RevenueCat’s early round, the thesis was clear: developers hate building subscription infrastructure, and whoever solves this problem for mobile will capture enormous value.
The numbers validated this quickly:
- 2018: 100 apps, $1M tracked revenue
- 2020: Series A at $15M
- 2021: 6,000+ apps, $1B+ tracked revenue, Series B at $300M valuation
SaaStr Fund’s bet wasn’t just on the founders or the technology—it was on the inevitable shift toward subscription-first mobile business models.
The Acceleration: Why RevenueCat Won (2019-2022)
Product Velocity: While competitors focused on single features, RevenueCat built a complete monetization platform. They shipped paywalls, experiments, targeting, customer centers, and integrations with every major analytics and attribution platform.
Developer-First DNA: The founders “understood the difficulties in scaling a subscription app firsthand”—this wasn’t consultants building for developers, this was developers building for developers.
Market Expansion: The mobile subscription market exploded during COVID. Apps that never considered subscriptions suddenly needed RevenueCat’s infrastructure. Gaming companies, productivity apps, health & fitness—every category was going subscription-first.
Pricing Innovation: RevenueCat moved from flat fees ($120-$499/month) to a percentage of revenue model, making their tools accessible to smaller developers while scaling with larger ones.
The Platform Play: Beyond Subscriptions (2023-2024)
By 2023, RevenueCat had achieved something remarkable: powering subscriptions in over 70,000 mobile apps—roughly one-in-three new subscription apps launched with RevenueCat under the hood.
But Jacob Eiting and the team weren’t satisfied with being “just” a subscription platform. They saw the bigger opportunity: becoming the Shopify for mobile apps.
Strategic Moves:
- Web Expansion: Launched RevenueCat Billing to handle web payments (perfect timing with Apple’s App Store policy changes)
- Vertical Integration: Acquired Dipsea (a subscription audiobook app) to run real-world experiments on monetization strategies
- AI-First: 20% of RevenueCat’s top 20 apps are AI-based, as these apps can charge higher fees and achieve better conversion rates
The Latest Chapter: $500M+ Valuation (2025) — And Revenue and Users Accelerating at Scale
This month’s $50M Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures at a $500M valuation represents “RevenueCat Part 2″—the transition from API company to the most important software company for apps.
The Numbers Are Staggering:
- 70,000+ mobile apps using RevenueCat
- $10+ billion in subscriptions annually
- 33% market share of new subscription apps
- OpenAI as a customer (worked with them to deploy ChatGPT on mobile)
What’s Next:
- Virtual currency for gaming
- Customer acquisition tools
- Lending for cash flow constraints
- AI-powered optimization
- International expansion (Japan, South Korea)
The SaaStr Fund Lesson: Infrastructure Investing at Its Best
RevenueCat perfectly exemplifies the SaaStr Fund investment thesis: find companies solving painful infrastructure problems for developers, invest early, and ride the wave as every company in the category becomes your customer.
Key Investment Lessons:
- Developer Tools Scale Exponentially: When you solve a universal developer problem, adoption compounds rapidly
- Platform Effects Are Real: RevenueCat became more valuable as more apps joined (network effects + data advantages)
- Timing Matters: Mobile subscriptions went from niche to standard during RevenueCat’s growth phase
- Founder-Market Fit: Eiting and Carranza lived the problem they were solving
The Growth Trajectory:
- 2018: $7M valuation (SaaStr Fund was the very first investor)
- 2020: $60m valuation (Series A)
- 2021: $300M valuation (Series B)
- 2025: $500M valuation (Series C)
That’s a potential 71x return in 7 years for early investors—and they’re just getting started.
Why This Matters for B2B and B2D Founders
RevenueCat’s story offers several strategic insights for SaaS builders:
Start with Infrastructure: The biggest B2B companies often begin by solving fundamental infrastructure problems that every company in a category faces.
Developer Experience Wins: When developers love using your product, word-of-mouth becomes your primary growth engine.
Platform Strategy: Don’t just solve one problem—become the platform where developers solve all related problems.
Market Timing: Sometimes the best companies are built during inflection points (mobile subscriptions, AI boom, app store policy changes).
The Bottom Line
From a $1.5M round at $7M valuation to a $500M valuation in 7 years, RevenueCat represents one of SaaStr Fund’s most successful infrastructure investments. By solving a universal developer pain point and executing relentlessly on product development, they’ve built the picks-and-shovels business for the mobile subscription economy.
For B2B and B2D founders: Study RevenueCat’s playbook. Find the infrastructure problem that every company in your space is solving badly, build the developer experience people love, and scale into a platform.
For investors: RevenueCat proves that developer infrastructure investments, made at the right time with the right team, can generate extraordinary returns while creating massive value for the ecosystem.
The mobile subscription economy is still in its early innings, and RevenueCat is positioned to power the next wave of innovation. Not bad for a “simple API” that started as a side project.
