Subscription Startup Prospress Sold To Automattic

Automattic announced that it has acquired startup Prospress.

The company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Longreads, Simplenote and more has bought Prospress, which developed WooCommerce Subscriptions, a recurring payment solution designed for WooCommerce. Automattic added that it will support the continued development of Prospress’s other products, and there will be no change for existing users.

“Right now, we’re on-boarding, welcoming, and integrating. We will then begin collaborating on roadmaps for the future,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Prospress Founder Brent Shepherd confirmed that for the time being, nothing will change for WooCommerce Subscriptions.

“In the immediate term, little will change. The same team will be developing and supporting the same codebase,” he explained. “In the longer term, I’m excited to explore how subscriptions can be integrated with unique resources at Automattic to create world-class products only possible with us all working on the same team. In more specific terms, that could mean looking at closer relationships with how payments are handled, or integrations with other platforms such as WordPress.com. There are also a couple of things to solve both in WooCommerce and subscriptions to help them scale better. Interestingly, these challenges are almost identical for the two codebases. By working more closely to solve them than we ever could apart, I hope we can do a better job of implementing solutions and in a shorter time frame.”

And while Shepherd noted that he didn’t build his company with the plan of selling it, he realized a future with Automaticc was the right move.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved at Prospress. I’ve had the great pleasure of having some amazing people join me over the years. Together I believe we’ve advanced a mission that matters to me — so much so that it predated Prospress and even WooCommerce,” he said. “I believe joining Automattic is the best next stage for Prospress, and I am personally excited to lead the transition and work with the Automattic team to further WooCommerce.”