Zuora was founded in 2007 by Tien Tzuo, K.V. Rao, and Cheng Zou. Tzuo had been employee number 11 at Salesforce and served as its Chief Strategy Officer. He left because he believed the subscription economy would reshape every industry, and companies needed purpose-built infrastructure to manage recurring revenue.
The Zuora platform handles the entire subscription lifecycle: pricing and packaging, quoting, order management, billing, revenue recognition, collections, and analytics. These are processes that traditional ERP systems weren’t designed for — they were built for one-time transactions, not for the complexities of recurring billing with mid-cycle changes, usage-based pricing, and multiple subscription tiers.
Zuora Revenue (formerly RevPro) automates revenue recognition under ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards. For subscription companies, recognizing revenue correctly is notoriously complex because contracts often involve multiple performance obligations, variable pricing, and mid-term modifications.
The company went public in 2018. Annual revenue reached approximately $400 million, though growth moderated as the subscription management market matured. Zuora serves more than 1,000 enterprise customers, including Zoom, Caterpillar, Ford, and The Guardian.
Silver Lake acquired Zuora for $1.7 billion in 2024, taking the company private. The move gave Zuora flexibility to invest in product development and pursue a longer-term strategy without quarterly earnings pressure.
Tzuo served as CEO from founding through the Silver Lake acquisition. He wrote “Subscribed,” a book about the subscription economy that became influential in business strategy circles. At the time of the acquisition, Zuora employed approximately 1,500 people worldwide.
