What the business is
RevenueCat is a subscription-management platform used by over 30,000 app developers; Dipsea sells romantic audio stories for subscribers.
The bet
Owning a real subscription app lets RevenueCat test features on itself first and show prospects live numbers.
Starting capital
Dipsea had raised $13.63M from investors including Bedrock and Thrive Capital; deal terms undisclosed, all cash.
How it started
RevenueCat, used by Notion, VSCO, Ladder, Photoroom and Buffer, raised a $12M Series C in April 2024. Eiting said the App Store had 'completely turned over' since the company started, and the subscription economy had grown at least 10 times.
What happened
The deal had been underway since March. Dipsea, which works with authors, narrators and ElevenLabs' AI voice technology, was doing well but, as a venture-backed startup in a tight environment, was having trouble finding an exit.
How it ended up
RevenueCat announced the acquisition of Dipsea on 26 September 2024, bringing aboard CEO Faye Keegan and her five-person team and buying out all of Dipsea's investors in an all-cash deal. Dipsea continues operating as a subsidiary.
What has to be true
RevenueCat said few people understand its customers' problems as deeply as someone who has lived them, as Dipsea's team had.
Owning an app lets RevenueCat test new techniques before asking customers to take the risk.
The live app can double as a demo environment where prospects log into the dashboard.
What can be applied
A tooling vendor that runs its own product in public gets credibility and a testbed; RevenueCat even tied its success to Dipsea's subscriber count.
Aftermath
As of 26 September 2024, Dipsea operated as a RevenueCat subsidiary with its five-person team, and RevenueCat was preparing a demo environment around it. Keegan was set to start overseeing the unit within weeks.
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