Zuora, Inc. is an American software company specializing in recurring revenue management. Based in Redwood City, California, the company serves organizations that sell services through subscriptions, usage-based pricing or hybrid models. Its cloud platform connects several essential operations: offering configuration, contract management, billing, payment collection and revenue recognition. It serves businesses in sectors including software, media, telecommunications and manufacturing.
A company born with the subscription economy
Zuora was founded in 2007 by Tien Tzuo, a former Salesforce executive, alongside K. V. Rao and Cheng Zou. Its starting point was a shift in business models: selling ongoing access to a product or service requires different tools from those designed for a one-off transaction. Contracts evolve, pricing varies and invoices must keep pace with these changes without multiplying manual processes.
The company makes the subscription economy central to its positioning. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018, it has also expanded its scope through acquisitions. The acquisition of Leeyo in 2017 strengthened its revenue recognition capabilities; the acquisition of Zephr in 2022 added tools for managing digital subscription journeys. In 2025, its acquisition by Silver Lake and GIC led to its delisting.
From pricing to accounting
The core offering focuses on automating processes that become complex when customers regularly modify their commitments. Zuora Billing manages subscriptions, plan changes, prorations and usage-based billing. The aim is to enable commercial offerings to evolve without having to rebuild the corresponding billing mechanisms with every launch.
Zuora Revenue addresses another need: determining how and when to recognize revenue in the accounts, particularly under the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards. Other features cover payments, collections and subscription experiences. The platform integrates with customer relationship management tools and enterprise resource planning software, rather than replacing the entire information system. Its value therefore also depends on the quality of the data and interfaces implemented at each customer.
What comes next?
The growth of usage-based offerings, particularly in cloud services and artificial intelligence, is creating new measurement and monetization needs. For Zuora, the challenge is to support these hybrid models while maintaining clear billing and reliable accounting. Competition comes from specialist software companies as well as payment platforms and major enterprise software providers. In this context, ease of deployment, interoperability and control of operating costs will be decisive criteria for winning over finance and IT departments.