Digital payment renewals business Renewtrak plants $3 million seed round

Sydney startup Renewtrak, which automates the renewals of subscription and services contracts, has raised $3 million in a seed round.

The raise was led by Sydney VC firm Tidal Ventures and supported by several existing investors, including Bridgeclimb founder Paul Cave.

The cash is for global expansion plans. Renewtrak’s customer base includes leading tech companies such as Lenovo, VMware, and HP.

The seven-year-old business is headed up by former Afterpay executives Mathew Cagney (CEO) and Alex Wood (CPO), who bring their payments and fintech experience to deliver frictionless, 100% digital payment experiences to the B2B market.

Cagney, who joined Renewtrak in May 2020, said the vision is to make the renewals process more akin to an ecommerce checkout rather than traditional purchase order and invoicing process.

“The vendors and distributors who use Renewtrak’s platform take control of their customers’ renewal experience and revenue streams. This helps them quote and convert more renewal opportunities, and reduces the time and expense involved in the process,” he said.

“We are delighted to be helping some of the best technology companies in the world across more than 40 countries to date, and we are hugely encouraged by the
data that shows that our customers are seeing improving conversion rates of their renewal opportunities, and ultimately earning more recurring revenue.”

While the likes of Netflix and Canva have pioneered the recurring revenue model, traditional software and hardware businesses are still making the shift and away from one-time sales or licences.

Mathew Cagney said business-to-business sales often involve an intermediary distributor, and the renewal experience can be poor, plagued by complexity, manual processes, data issues, and outdated payments experiences.

“Customers in many cases are not even aware the relevant product or service is due for renewal or upgrade at the contract anniversary, resulting in technology vendors losing up to 50% of these renewal opportunities,” he said.

The Renewtrak software automates the renewal process, managing it from quote to payment, as well as offering data and analytics capabilities, and customer engagement processes.