How Fi turned retention into 829% subscription growth

From hardware sales to digital subscriptions, Fi powers it all on one platform — without the operational headache.

From startup to subscription powerhouse

When Fi launched in 2019, their vision was simple but ambitious: keep dogs safe, healthy, and connected through smart collars and a subscription-powered companion app.

The Fi Collar started as a GPS tracking device, giving owners real-time visibility into their dog’s location. But Fi quickly realized that GPS tracking was only the beginning. They began layering on features that transformed the product into a dog health and wellness platform — tracking exercise, sleep, barking, eating, and drinking patterns.

They also saw opportunities to expand into adjacent products and services:

• Fi Nano microchips for identification and safety

• Dog health supplements delivered as a recurring subscription

• Retail and online partnerships to reach more dog owners

But running a consumer subscription business that blends hardware sales with digital services, multiple product lines, and channel partnerships is no small feat. Every launch, retention strategy, and billing cycle had to run smoothly.

Rather than attempt to build their own system, Fi’s CEO made an early call that would shape their future growth: buy, don’t build. Ultimately, they chose Recurly for its subscription-first DNA, flexibility to support both physical and digital products, and automation that could scale with their vision.

The impact of choosing Recurly

For Fi, the impact was immediate and compounding:

• 829% subscription revenue growth since 2019

• 29x ROI in the last 12 months

• Nearly $11 million in recovered revenue from failed payments over the last 12 months

• Diversified from one core subscription to multiple verticals — without adding operational drag

According to Ginji Wang, COO, Fi, Recurly is truly set-it-and-forget-it: “We don’t want to be in the business of subscription management — we want to build great products for dogs. Recurly makes that possible.”

Turning retention into revenue

For Fi, retention isn’t a back-office metric; it’s the heartbeat of the business. Today, renewals drive 60–70% of revenue, and Recurly plays a central role in keeping those numbers strong.

From the start, Fi used Recurly’s automated dunning and enhanced retry logic to prevent failed payments from turning into churn. But they didn’t stop there. They also built a retention playbook designed to deliver flexibility, reward loyalty, and preserve customer relationships:

• Pre-payment incentives to encourage longer-term commitments and improve cash flow

• Flexible plan changes to pause, downgrade, or customize subscriptions instantly

• Loyalty discounts for multi-dog households and high-value customers

• On-the-spot offers like a free month for customers experiencing financial or technical challenges

This flexibility isn’t just about saving subscriptions; it also builds goodwill and strengthens customer loyalty.

“When a customer hits a personal life rough patch, we can instantly change their plan, offer a free month, or extend their service,” says Wang. “That flexibility has been huge.” And because Recurly makes these actions quick and easy, Fi can respond in real time, keeping dogs healthy and owners engaged.

Fi has also found that commitment length has a direct, measurable impact on retention. The team discovered a linear relationship: the longer a customer commits to a plan, the better their retention becomes.

To encourage these longer-term commitments, Fi leverages Recurly to offer prepayment incentives, early-renewal discounts, and hardware offers, all designed to keep customers engaged for the long haul.

Freeing the team to focus on strategy

Running subscription operations manually can consume entire teams. At Fi, it takes just one person dedicating about 20% of their time to manage Recurly. That operational efficiency frees everyone else to focus on growth and strategy, rather than billing and reconciliation. 

With Recurly running subscriptions in the background, Fi has the freedom to invest their time on:

• Testing new acquisition channels

• Analyzing retention across 50+ partnerships

• Experimenting with product bundling and upsells

• Launching new hardware and health-related products

Finance that scales with the business

With Fi’s recurring revenue running through Recurly, monthly close is straightforward and stress-free. The company’s three-person finance team covers accounting, FP&A, and sales operations for the entire business — a testament to how much of the subscription workflow is automated.

“Our three-person finance team runs the entire operation,” explains Wang . “But we don't know a different world at Fi. With our business running through Recurly, month-end close is simple.”

Data from Recurly flows directly into Fi’s internal dashboards, giving them a unified, real-time view of performance across all channels and products. There’s no need for messy reconciliations, manual imports, or juggling siloed systems.

The strategic partner behind the technology

Recurly isn’t just a platform for Fi — it’s a partner in their growth. The customer success team stays closely engaged, proactively sharing best practices, surfacing new opportunities, and collaborating on ways to improve retention and revenue recovery.

“What’s been really cool is that when we come to the table with a new set of growth plans, the Recurly team is right there with us,” Wang notes. “They give us the assurance that the subscription side is covered so we can focus on executing our vision.”

This close working relationship ensures Fi can move quickly, make smart decisions, and continually fine-tune their subscription strategy without slowing down product innovation.

Complex subscriptions, simple operations

Fi runs a complex, multi-product subscription business at scale, but internally, it feels simple.

Recurly’s subscription engine runs quietly in the background, powering retention, loyalty programs, and new product launches, while freeing Fi’s team to focus on what they do best: building innovative products for dogs and the people who love them.