Cheddar Lands Some Cash of Its Own

Cheddar's origins date back to 2009 and Bloomington's SproutBox venture studio.

A Bloomington-based billing technology company has received a $1.25 million round of funding. Cheddar, formerly known as CheddarGetter, says it is one of the first tech companies in Bloomington to secure venture capital from outside sources. Chief Executive Officer Mike Trotzke says the platform is tapping into the future of where billing is headed by "being very, very effective for doing usage-based billing" for its software-as-a-service customers.

Trotzke tells Inside INdiana Business Cheddar is poised to grow into a "very large business in a very short period of time." The company currently employs 4 and Trotzke says it could add 10 or 11 over the next year. In the coming years, he says anticipates rapid customer growth to drive that number into the 30s or 40s. "Rather than say ‘okay, I’m billing you $40 a month flat, or I’m just billing you one time $40,’ our system tracks what people are doing inside of a software — inside of your software — and then bills them accordingly," Trotzke says. "Variable monthly billing is something that is really, really hot. Consumption and usage-based billing are sort of the future of SaaS and that’s a really growing market and our product serves that very, very well."

Investors were sourced up from throughout the Midwest and include M25 Group, a Chicago firm that led the funding round, as well as Cincinnati-based Connectic Ventures, Harbor Street Ventures and Warhawk Ventures in Chicago, SixThirty and Cultivation Capital of St. Louis, Lafayette-based Little Engine Ventures and Indiana’s Elevate Ventures. The mix of funds from throughout the region, says Trotzke, suggests significant development of what has traditionally been a weak venture capital scene in the Midwest. "Obviously, that meant for me, that I had to do some travel from Bloomington around to find some solid seed funds to participate," Trotzke says. "However, in comparison to, you know, say five years ago, when that travel meant back-and-fourth between New York and San Francisco and a very unlikely ‘yes,’ because investors don’t want to invest that far from home"

Cheddar was launched in 2009 through the SproutBox venture studio, which was co-founded by Trotzke and Marc Guyer and is also based in Bloomington.