Skio, a 2020 Y Combinator alum founded by college dropout Kennan Frost, has been acquired by competitor Recharge, as announced by the companies on Thursday.
Both Skio and Recharge offer products to manage subscription payments for brands.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed in the official press release. However, Frost, who had previously exited the company, posted on social media that his startup secured $105 million in cash after having raised only $8 million. This represents a significant return.
His posts were shared by Skio investors Y Combinator and Nicolas Wittenborn, founder of Adjacent VC.
Frost had not been involved in the company for about two years, according to a LinkedIn post by Skio’s current CEO, Aidan Thibodeaux, who started as the startup’s first COO. Thibodeaux emphasized their strategy of not spending on marketing, ads, or sales teams, but rather investing solely in product development. Thibodeaux and founding CTO Andrew Chen personally handled all sales calls.
Frost shared that he founded Skio solo after a panic attack prompted him to leave his engineering position at Pinterest, just before COVID lockdowns began.
He joined YC and faced initial challenges, only succeeding after pivoting to the subscription model. In three years, he achieved $10M in ARR and profitability, attributing further growth to a dedicated team.
His YC advisor, Gustaf Alströmer, confirmed the sale terms on social media, praising Frost’s perseverance despite difficulties during his accelerator experience.
At the sale, Skio had $32 million ARR and processed $4 billion in payments. Frost is now focusing on a new venture, Icon, which provides the AdMaker product for ad creation and campaign tracking.
Frost, Recharge, and Wittenborn were not immediately available for comment.