Paddle acquires ProfitWell for $200M to bring analytics and retention tools to its SaaS payments platform

In the case of Paddle, ProfitWell gives the company a pretty full suite of services catering to SaaS businesses: alongside its core payment product, it will offer taxes, billing and reporting, and now retention and pricing analytics as well — all services that SaaS-based companies need to run their subscription businesses and reduce churn, but not necessarily “core” to the technology that they themselves are building to sell to others.The issue of retention (and its flip side, churn) is a big one in the world of SaaS: there has long been an aspect to subscriptions where users enter payment details once and actively but also sometimes inadvertently forget about paying again, turning them into recurring customers.But as the market matures, and we find ourselves swinging into a tighter phase of the economy and spending, some will want to move away from that and take a more proactive role in managing spend.“At ProfitWell, we’re committed to supercharging revenue growth for some of the most exciting, forward-thinking businesses on the planet, and by joining forces with Paddle we see an opportunity to do even more,” said Campbell in a statement.