Israeli business software firm OpTier raised $7 million in its third round of funding Monday to expand its research and development and sales and marketing initiatives as it acquires more customers.

The New York-based firm raised the funding round from its previous investors Carmel Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Pitango Venture Capital. Including this round, the company has secured $32.6 million in funding since its inception in 2002.

The company’s last funding round was in August and totaled $9.5 million from the same investors (see OpTier Raises $9.5M More).

Last April, OpTier launched its CoreFirst product, which is software that helps organizations improve the quality of services provided by an IT application. CoreFirst helps businesses track, improve the performance, and also control the cost of an IT application such as e-banking or online purchasing.

CoreFirst is designed to track user transactions, profile their activities, and also allow businesses to define its IT priorities and address issues that are more important.

Since the product’s launch last year, the company has obtained several Fortune 100 customers—some of which are paying customers and some are on a pilot program—said Motti Tal, executive vice president for marketing and business development.

This round of funding will allow the company to manage the expansion of the company, Mr. Tal said.

“We have met the goals and exceeded them,” said Mr. Tal. “Several areas including the product development road map, and sales and marketing can benefit [from this funding round].”

OpTier also plans to utilize the round of funding to expand its operations in the United States and Europe, Mr. Tal said. OpTier has direct sales offices in the U.S. while the company sells its products in Europe via channel partners.

New Customers

The company has acquired several customers in the last year that include large companies in the financial services, retail, telecom, government, and manufacturing sectors.

“When we first developed CoreFirst, we knew our technology could solve major business issues experienced by many large organizations. In a very short period of time, adoption of our software has exceeded expectations and continues to garner interest in the marketplace,” said CEO Israel Mazin.

OpTier competes with other IT service management software companies such as CA, IBM Tivoli, HP, and BMC. It is the only provider of an end-to-end solution for transaction processing needs, Mr. Tal said.

The company was founded by Mr. Mazin and Eli Mashiah, who created Israeli security software maker Memco, which was sold to Computer Associates for $550 million in 1999.