Despite the crowded billing market, Lago believes there is an opportunity for a focus on extensibility and tailored solutions for startups. The company plans to continue building out its existing business and start considering what more it might add next, including providing more data analytics to customers about what people are consuming and paying for, and the patterns of their payments. Another area of interest is payments orchestration, giving users control over what they use but ensuring that it integrates well with their billing platform.
Key takeaways:
- Lago, a Paris-based startup, has raised $22 million across two funding rounds for its open-source billing platform. The company pivoted from marketing tools to billing, identifying a gap in the market for tailored billing solutions for developers.
- The startup has already attracted notable early customers including Mistral.ai, Together.ai, and Juni. The latest Series A of $15 million was led by FirstMark, and the previous seed of $7 million was led by SignalFire.
- Lago's CEO, Anh-Tho Chuong, believes there is a significant opportunity for a focus on extensibility and tailored solutions for startups, particularly in the AI sector where business models are still being established.
- Looking ahead, Lago plans to continue building out its existing business and explore additional areas such as data analytics and payments orchestration. However, the company is unlikely to build a payments stack, instead focusing on ensuring its platform integrates well with users' chosen payment systems.