About Utila
Utila is an enterprise-grade crypto operations platform that helps organizations manage digital assets securely and efficiently.
Before Vayu
As the company scaled, its customer base grew rapidly, alongside the complexity of its pricing models, billing cycles, and expansion workflows.
This case study is based on an interview with Utila’s VP of Finance and reflects a finance-led perspective on scaling revenue operations.
“By providing us with deep insights and real-time data on our revenue streams, Vayu enhances our strategic decision-making capabilities. This level of visibility is crucial for aligning our business strategies with market shifts.”
Bentzi Rabi
CEO and Co-Founder, Utila
Challenges
- Manual billing could not keep up with growth – Before implementing Vayu, all billing operations at Utila were handled manually. Invoicing, product usage monitoring, and expansion tracking relied on spreadsheets and ad hoc processes. As the customer base expanded rapidly, invoice volume increased significantly, with both monthly and quarterly billing cycles in place. Or in their words: “Before Vayu, all billing operations were done manually. Invoicing, product monitoring, everything.”
- Engineering-dependent revenue operations – Billing complexity extended beyond invoicing. Usage monitoring and pricing changes relied heavily on engineering. As Utila launched more products with usage-based components and frequent expansions, finance depended on engineering teams to track usage and support pricing changes. Expansion growth was strong, but it was monitored manually by engineering, creating operational bottlenecks and increasing risk. “Before Vayu, we relied on engineering for monitoring product usage and pricing changes.” At the core of this dependency was the absence of a dedicated usage metering layer. Usage data had to be tracked and maintained manually, keeping engineering deeply involved in revenue workflows.
- The breaking point: timing, scale, and cash flow – As billing complexity increased, timing became a serious issue. Quarterly billing cycles took significant time to manage manually for a growing customer base. Not all invoices were issued when they should have been, directly affecting cash flow and days sales outstanding. “As our customer base expanded very rapidly, the number of invoices skyrocketed.” At this stage, manual billing was no longer sustainable.
Why Vayu
Shifting Billing Ownership to Finance – Utila needd a seamless way to support usage-based and hybrid pricing models at scale without increasing operational risk or expanding headcount.
The goal was not incremental improvement. It was a structural shift. Finance needed ownership over billing, usage monitoring, expansion revenue, and pricing decisions, without relying on engineering for day-to-day execution.
SOLUTIONS
- Finance-Owned, Automated Revenue Operations – With Vayu, Utila moved revenue operations into a centralized, automated platform owned by finance.
- Usage metering without building in-house infrastructure – Usage metering is a core part of Utila’s revenue model, not an add-on. Vayu handles usage metering for Utila, eliminating the need to build and maintain an in-house solution. This removed a significant engineering burden and allowed product teams to focus on development, while finance gained accurate, real-time usage data to support billing and expansion workflows. This made usage-based and hybrid pricing operationally viable at scale.
- Pricing flexibility without engineering dependency – With Vayu, Utila can move between different pricing models without pulling engineering into the process. Finance can define, test, and monetize pricing changes directly in Vayu, then implement them immediately. This allows the team to iterate on pricing at the pace of the business, without requiring engineering to revisit pricing logic each time.
- Finance-owned billing and automation – Key changes included automated monthly and quarterly invoicing, automated tracking of product usage, automated billing of frequent expansions based on real usage, and bulk invoicing for large customer bases. Finance no longer depended on engineering for pricing changes or usage monitoring: “Before Vayu, we relied on engineering. Now we have autonomy and control.”
- Real-time visibility across revenue and usage – Vayu provides a unified platform for monitoring revenue operations in real time. Finance teams can see issued and unissued invoices, accounts receivable aging, and product usage across customers. These insights are accessible across departments, including customer success: “We finally have one unified platform with real-time insights on usage and revenue.” This visibility shifted the organization from reactive billing management to proactive revenue oversight.
Results
- The Results: Faster Cash and Scalable Operations – Automation and finance-owned workflows unlocked measurable operational impact.
- Faster cash flow and contract-to-cash – By automating invoicing and enabling bulk billing, Utila significantly improved the speed and reliability of its billing cycles. Invoices were issued on time at scale, directly improving cash flow and DSO: “Vayu enabled automated bulk invoicing, dramatically improved our DSO, and shortened our contract-to-cash cycle. Simply put, money hits the bank faster.”
- Scaling without adding headcount – As Utila continued to grow, billing operations did not require additional staffing. Automation allowed the finance team to manage an expanding customer base without increasing billing or operations headcount, while also reducing the risk of delayed or missed revenue: “Without Vayu, we would probably need a much larger operations team. Now we don’t need to bring more headcount.”
- Why it matters – For Utila, revenue automation is not a nice-to-have. It is foundational infrastructure. As the company scaled usage-based and hybrid pricing models, finance needed autonomy, visibility, and speed to support growth without operational drag or revenue risk.
