ZeroSettle
Keep 30% More of Your Mobile App Revenue with Direct Billing
Winter 2026ActiveFintechPaymentsDeveloper ToolsFintechPaymentsB2BCryptocurrency
Company
https://zerosettle.ioZeroSettle is a mobile SDK that switches customers from App Store billing to direct billing. It takes 15 minutes to set up and immediately unlocks zero App Store fees, higher retention/conversion, and instant payouts.
Verdict
High Signal
Market Opportunity
Target ICP is mobile app developers with meaningful ARR ($500K–$20M+) looking to avoid Apple's 30% cut. Post-Epic v. Apple ruling and evolving App Store policies, direct billing on iOS is now legally viable, making this a real and timely opportunity. The mobile app economy is massive — Apple's App Store alone generates hundreds of billions in transactions annually, and even 1% capture at 5% fee = significant revenue. Clear monetization: 5% + 50¢ per transaction or BYO Stripe.
High Signal
Founder Signal
Both founders are former Apple software engineers with ~4 years of full-time Apple experience each. Ryan Elliott worked on Core OS Power & Performance and CoreMedia Streaming at Apple (Jan 2022 – Dec 2025). Gabe Roeloffs reached Senior SWE at Apple writing OS code running on 2B+ devices (Aug 2021 – Oct 2025). Critically, both worked at Apple on iOS internals — directly relevant to navigating App Store billing, StoreKit, and mobile payment flows. Cal Poly SLO CS degrees, irrelevant given the experience.
Medium Signal
Competition
No direct competitor data surfaced, but the space includes RevenueCat (subscription management, though not direct billing bypass), Paddle (web-based MoR), and potentially new entrants copying the same regulatory arbitrage. The core moat is Apple compliance expertise, fast integration, and being first to market with a full-stack SDK approach. The risk is Apple changing rules again or larger players (RevenueCat, Stripe) adding this feature.
High Signal
Product
Live SDK with docs, pricing page, and working dashboard. Supports Swift, React Native, and Flutter with 15-minute integration claim. Website shows specific ROI calculator (e.g. $308K more on $3M ARR), real code snippets, and a full feature set including checkout, migration campaigns, upgrade offers, and cancel flows — this is clearly a shipped product, not vaporware.
OverallA Tier
ZeroSettle is a well-timed, technically credible play built by two former Apple OS engineers who know the platform inside out — exactly the right founders for this problem. The product is live with real docs, a pricing page, SDK packages, and a compelling ROI calculator. The core risk is regulatory: Apple has historically been hostile to billing bypass attempts and policy shifts could kill the value prop overnight. No press or named customer logos yet, which is the main gap. If they can show early customer ARR and navigate Apple compliance long-term, this is a strong A-tier company.
Active Founders
