Bangalore: KV Rao founded Zuora, a provider of billing software for Web-enabled, subscription-based businesses, has raised $15 million in series B financing.

The round led by new investor Shasta Ventures, included a first investment from Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. Existing investors Benchmark Capital and Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, also participated in the round, according to Tien Tzuo, the company's chief executive.

"The company got advice from Benchmark in August to raise funding sooner, rather than waiting to raise the current round in early 2009, when the economic situation could be worse," said Tzuo.

Since launching its first product in May, Z-Billing, San Francisco-based Zuora has lined up nearly 50 customers and is on track to close the year ahead of its target with about $1 million in revenue.

Zuora's software, which is delivered as a service, manages how subscription services are purchased and billed. Earlier this month, the company launched its second product, Z-Payments. When its product first launched, Zuora planned on targeting companies selling software-as-a-service to other businesses, but it has had substantial interest from consumer-facing companies, which currently make up about 80 percent of its business, Tzuo said.