YC-backed Skio sold to Recharge for $105M cash after reaching $32M ARR with no marketing or sales team

This article was published on May 3, 2026 TL;DRYC-backed Skio, a Shopify subscription platform built with $8 million in total funding and no marketing, sales, or advertising spend, was acquired by market leader Recharge for $105 million in cash after reaching $32 million in ARR and processing $4 billion in payments. Founder Kennan Frost has already launched Icon, an AI advertising company backed by Founders Fund. YC-backed Skio, a Shopify subscription platform built with $8 million in total funding and no marketing, sales, or advertising spend, was acquired by market leader Recharge for $105 million in cash after reaching $32 million in ARR and processing $4 billion in payments. Founder Kennan Frost has already launched Icon, an AI advertising company backed by Founders Fund. Kennan Frost dropped out of college, worked as an engineer at Pinterest, had a panic attack, quit, applied to Y Combinator in 2020, and by his own account failed his way through the programme until a pivot to subscription payments changed everything. Five years later, on 30 April 2026, the company he built, Skio, was acquired by its largest competitor, Recharge, for $105 million in cash. Skio had raised a tota