Welcome to The Margin, a newsletter designed to keep you on the leading edge of monetization.
In business, the difference between being ahead of the curve or slow to adapt is anything but marginal. The Margin aims to be the most useful, timely, and incisive ping that hits your inbox all week. It includes critical research and analyst insights to inform short and long-term decision making.
Research Spotlight
Struggling With CPQ Vendor Selection? |
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Nearly 50% of CPQ implementations fail to achieve their objectives or outright fail. Why? Poor project preparation and selecting the wrong vendor are among top culprits. Making the right selection starts with defining primary uses cases and matching those to solutions capable of supporting them. From there, deeper vendor review and solution proof of concept sessions are key. The CPQ market is more fragmented than ever, and far from a one-size fits all. No single vendor excels equally at Configuration (C), Pricing (P), or Quoting (Q). The vast majority of suppliers can only deliver one of the three letters in CPQ. The market is further segmented based vendor/solution’s ability to deliver agility, handle complexity, and support volumes. Verticalization of solutions and vendor’s domain expertise add additional choice/selection complexity into the picture. Gen AI and Agentic AI hold long-term promise to make CPQ smarter, more automated, faster and easier to adopt, but practical impact is still months or years away. In the meantime, AI can also add to user confusion and create unrealistic expectations that actually delay CPQ implementations. Salesforce CPQ successfully brought CPQ to the masses and based on its size, marketing and channel muscle, and recognition of the needs of the broader market it attained the top ranking in MGI’s 360 Ratings. But overselling and poor user preparations have led to considerable customer disappointment and left Salesforce in the mode of re-building its approach and product offering. The business benefits of an integrated CRM and CPQ platform are less clear than conventional wisdom would believe. MGI has conducted a series of deep dive interviews with Salesforce CPQ and Billing (aka Revenue Cloud, among other monikers) customers, and the customer feedback is eye-opening. What is also striking is the rapid market adoption and innovation of low-end basic quoting tools. Vendors like DealHub, Logik.io (recently acquired by ServiceNow, see below), Nue, and Subskribe – among others – are bringing fresh approaches and thinking to the space and generally have a broader vision for quote to cash as compared to legacy CPQ vendors coming from the manufacturing industry. The CPQ Top 25 Buyer’s Guide from MGI Research helps sales, finance, and IT teams make smarter, faster CPQ decisions. Featuring in-depth MGI 360 Ratings™ and market insights on the 25 most significant CPQ vendors, including Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and more, this guide is a must-read for anyone evaluating or optimizing CPQ solutions. |
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Research Spotlight
Agile Billing: A Strategic Enabler in an Era of Business Uncertainty |
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Billing systems can drive growth—or stall it. The Agile Billing Top 50 Buyer’s Guide from MGI Research helps buyers navigate a crowded, high-stakes market. With detailed MGI 360 Ratings™ of 35 top vendors—including Salesforce, Stripe, SAP, and Zuora—and insights into dynamic pricing, usage-based billing, and hybrid models, this guide helps companies identify the right-fit billing platform for scale, flexibility, and innovation. Download the executive summary below or contact us to get access to the full report: |
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Research Spotlight
Plugging Revenue Leakage – A Source of Growth and Profit |
| Even well-run companies leak between 2-4% of revenue. And yet, the concepts of revenue leakage and revenue assurance are not widely known and poorly understood. The most common misconception is that revenue leakage is a collections or billing problem (it’s broader than either billing or collections and requires a holistic approach). The two most popular objections to addressing revenue leakage are 1) “we don’t have this problem”, and 2) “the juice is not worth the squeeze, it’s a one-off gain that doesn’t deliver on-going value”.
To help define the problem and underscore the risks of doing nothing, MGI produced a strategic briefing on revenue leakage, its causes, the benefits of addressing it, and the resources available for clients to increase the top line, bolster the bottom line, and improve customer satisfaction. Watch the briefing and learn how to identify, measure, and fix revenue leakage with a structured, continuous approach. This session includes actionable insights for finance, operations, IT, and RevOps leaders, notably:
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Industry News
M&A Activity
ServiceNow signed a definitive agreement to acquire Logik.io, a CPQ solution provider (MGI 360 Rated B, score of 51 vs peer avg. 55), in a move aimed at strengthening its sales quoting and order management capabilities.
Contractbook Acquired by Scrive
Scrive has announced the acquisition of Contractbook (MGI 360 Rated 43 vs peer avg. 50), a Copenhagen-based contract management platform, in a move to complement its secure e-signature solution and bring a broader contract lifecycle solution to the European market.
Argano Acquires Anavate Partners
Argano has acquired Twelve Consulting Group, a premier Anaplan Gold Partner, in a move that strengthens its position as the leading Anaplan services platform.
Payment Company Stripe to Acquire Crypto Wallet Provider Privy
Stripe agreed to acquire crypto wallet startup Privy, which has raised over $40m from firms like Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Definition, Sequoia Capital, and Paradigm.
Maxio has acquired RevOps, a CPQ and Deal Desk platform focused on flexible, consumption-based pricing for SMBs and startups. Previously partners, the two companies share a common target market. Maxio’s acquisition approach to CPQ contrasts with Chargebee’s recent announcement of a home-grown quoting tool.
Maxio Announces Maxio CPQ, Accelerating the Future of Quote-to-Cash
On the heels of its acquisition of RevOps, Maxio launched Maxio CPQ, a new Configure, Price, Quote solution based on the RevOps product. Designed to streamline quoting for SaaS companies, Maxio CPQ aims to reduce errors, speed up deal cycles, and improve collaboration across Sales, RevOps, and Finance teams through automation and real-time revenue visibility.
Major Talent Moves
Maxio Appoints Branden Jenkins as Chief Executive Officer
Maxio has appointed Branden Jenkins as Chief Executive Officer, bringing on a seasoned SaaS executive to lead the company through its next phase of growth in B2B billing and revenue management. Maxio also hired a new CMO, Tracy Kraft.
Conga Appoints Celia Fleischaker as Chief Marketing Officer
Conga has appointed Celia Fleischaker as Chief Marketing Officer, tasking her with leading global marketing, brand strategy, and demand generation as the company continues to evolve its story beyond revenue lifecycle management. Previously Fleischaker served at PROS and Epicor. Conga also hired a new CEO, Dave Osborne.
PROS Holdings, Inc. Names Jeff Cotten as President & Chief Executive Officer
PROS Holdings has named Jeff Cotten as its next President and CEO, effective June 2, 2025, succeeding Andres Reiner, who will stay on in an advisory role to support a smooth leadership transition.
Frontdoor Announces Tech Expert Dr. Bala Ganesh as Chief Technology Officer
Frontdoor has appointed Dr. Bala Ganesh as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, effective July 14, 2025. A former board member, Ganesh brings deep familiarity with the company and extensive experience in AI, digital transformation, and technology innovation.
Eutelsat America And Oneweb Technologies Announce New COO And CTO Executive Appointments
Eutelsat America and OneWeb Technologies (EACOWT) have named Joe Uglialoro as COO and General Counsel, and Chris Hetmanski as CTO, effective immediately. Uglialoro brings 20+ years in telecom legal and operations, while Hetmanski offers 30+ years leading satellite tech strategy.
Funding News
AI Startups Gobbling More Than a Third of Venture Debt Dollars This Year
Artificial intelligence isn’t just dominating venture capital funding. It’s also beginning to dominate venture debt funding, according to data from Pitchbook. A lot is to finance big-ticket items like data centers, while some is to help companies maintain inflated seed or Series A valuations.
Monetize360 Raises Investment from Abyro Capital to Redefine Enterprise Monetization Infrastructure
Monetize360, a SaaS company offering a no-code AI-powered platform for complex enterprise monetization, secured investment from Abyro Capital. The funding will help Monetize360 continue to grow in the US and India, and enhance its platform, which serves sectors like AI infrastructure, fintech, and global financial services.
Rightrev Raises $13 Million Series A
RightRev raised $13 million in a Series A round to expand its AI-powered automated revenue management platform. The funding will accelerate product innovation and market growth, with a continued focus on serving enterprises handle complex revenue recognition and compliance in evolving business models.
Remark Raises $16M To Build Out Human-Powered Expert Models for E-Commerce
Remark, a developer of expert models for ecommerce, raised $16m in Series A funding. Inspired Capital led, joined by Stripe, Neo, Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, and Visible Ventures.
Payrails Raises $32M Series A To Boost Payment Performance for Global Enterprises
Payrails, a German provider of enterprise payments software, raised $32m in Series A funding. HV Capital led, joined by insiders a16z, EQT Ventures, and General Catalyst.
Thinking Machines Lab’s $2B Seed Round Is Biggest by a Long Shot
Thinking Machines Lab, led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has raised a record-breaking $2 billion seed round at a $10 billion valuation, the largest seed financing ever reported.
So What Have I Missed?
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That’s it for this issue of The Margin. If you’ve made it this far, we’ll certainly see you next time.
Warm wishes,
MGI Research
