Bessemer Venture Partners, which is the oldest VC firm in the US, has picked many winners such as Skype, VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and LinkedIn. So, what does the firm like right now? Well, one sector is on-demand business applications.

In fact, this week the firm led a $15 million investment in Intacct, which operates a web-based ERP system. In all, the firm has raised $29 million in the past nine months.

"We focus on small and mid size companies," said Marc Linden, Intacct's CFO, in an interview with me. "It's for those businesses that are graduating from Intuit's (NASDAQ: INTU) QuickBooks. And we estimate the market size at $7 billion."

No doubt, there are some tough competitors, such as NetSuite (NYSE: N). But with such a large market size, there should be room for a variety of players.

And what about the slowing economy? According to Linden, there is "no effect yet." Then again, by using an on-demand model, customers may be looking to Intacct to cut costs.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook (www.mergerbook.com).

After a slow start, the NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) IPO gained ground in trading later in the day – with the stock up $5.04 to $31.04.

The company is a top on-demand software player, providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications for small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs).

Well, to get some perspective on things, I had a chance to interview Mike Braun, who is the CEO of Intacct. His company is also an on-demand player:

Q: What does the NetSuite IPO mean for the industry and companies like Intacct with similar offerings?

A: NetSuite will be the first company to go public offering "system of record" financial applications using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

This week, I had a chance to talk to Michael Braun, a veteran of the tech world. Back in 1981, he helped to launch the original IBM (NYSE: IBM) PC. He has also been the CEO of three Silicon Valley companies.

His latest gig is the CEO of Intacct, which develops on-demand financial management systems for small and midsize businesses. It has about 2,000 customers so far.

While on board for only five months, Braun has taken swift action. He has retained key managers and board members. Moreover, he got $14 million in a venture capital round. The investors include Sigma Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Emergence Capital Partners. Emergence also invested in Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), which is the premier on-demand company.

"The venture round was fairly quick," said Braun. "The investors realize the big market opportunity in providing financial applications. We are allowing QuickBooks' users to graduate from entry-level accounting."

Intacct's applications have proved to be extremely sticky, with a retention rate of 99%. Says Braun, "With on-demand, we are seeing a major platform shift. If you look at the history of these kinds of changes, it's often the new players that dominate the markets. And, we are also in one of the biggest categories of business software."

To see other recent venture capital fundings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.