Zuora’s IPO crushes, highlights the growing influence of the subscription economy

Subscription management software company Zuora went public on Thursday, and was well received by investors on the stock market following its debut. After pricing their IPO at $14 and raising $154m, ...

Subscription management software company Zuora went public on Thursday, and was well received by investors on the stock market following its debut.

Zuora’s IPO crushes, highlights the growing influence of the subscription economy

After pricing their IPO at $14 and raising $154m, the company closed at $20 — sending their stock up 43% and pushing the company value to $2B.

Which was much higher than expected

In their filings, the company said they planned to price shares between $9 and $11 — before it raised that range to $11 to $13.

Founded by Tien Tzuo, the subscription pioneer was well ahead of the curve in the fledgling subscription economy when it launched in 2007. Tzuo knew that companies would need a system that understood how they collected and reported money with a subscription service.

Now, Zuora manages 950 customers, 15 of whom are Fortune 100 companies, and has made $167m for its fiscal 2018 revenue, up from $113m in 2017.

Subscriptions are here to stay

As we subscribe our way into what TechCrunch calls the “golden age of enterprise SaaS,” Zuora believes more businesses will shift to subscription models across sectors ranging from media, to transportation, to retail.

But this so-called cosmic shift doesn’t come without some hefty competition. Oracle and SAP have introduced competing enterprise resource options, but Zuora’s splash on the stock exchange makes it the hot SaaS flavor of the week.

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