Zuora lands $15 million for online billing services

Zuora, a company that offers an on-demand subscription billing and payment service, announced Tuesday that it has secured $15 million in Series B funding. According to the company, the round was led by Shasta Ventures and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. Benchmark Capital and Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, also participated.

Zuora's funding round comes amid concerns that venture capitalists aren't as willing to invest cash in start-ups as they were just a few months ago. But as Jason Pressman, managing director at Shasta Ventures points out, maybe that fear is unwarranted.

"Now is the time for investors to act, not sit on the sidelines and watch what happens. The venture community needs to continue to support the innovation and immense potential in Silicon Valley and elsewhere," Pressman said.

Zuora is competing in a crowded market. Companies like Aria Systems and eVapt are trying to corner the sector and each have been able to raise funding to do it. Regardless, Zuora has high hopes for what it can do with its business model and believes it can solidify itself as the leader in the market.

"Our vision is to build the PayPal for the subscription world, so that our customers can focus on their core business, not on their infrastructure," said Tien Tzuo, CEO, Zuora. "The Series B round ensures that we can maintain our rate of growth and momentum and continue our quest to be the gold standard in this market."

Zuora hopes to become the "gold standard" with the help of its two main products: Z-Billing and Z-Payments. Z-Billing is designed specifically for subscription-based companies that need help managing and growing their business, while Z-Payments aims at becoming a complete payment solution that manages all elements of the payment process. With the help of the funding, Zuora claims it will release more products to supplement its current stable of solutions.