Maaya Raises $8M And Looks For More

Maaya Corp., a solution provider that enables companies to give their customers personalized applications, recently received $8 million in a second round of financing and plans to launch a $30 million Series C offering at the beginning of next year.

Softbank Venture Capital, which led the Series B deal, dumped $7 million into the company and was alerted to the deal by Cambrian Ventures, a small VC that was formed last June. Cambrian, which only manages $25 million, was the Mountain View, Calif.-based issuer’s only Series A investor, and has contributed a total of $3 million to Maaya thus far.

Valued at $25 million, Maaya was founded in 1998 and has about eight clients, including Cisco Systems, Maxtor and Quantum Corporation. The investment will be used to fuel sales and marketing efforts as well as ramp up R&D efforts.

The company expects its next round to be used to continue on the same path but in a more aggressive manner. “The space is heating up quite a bit and we have a good position. In 2003 we should then think of an IPO,” said Madan Bellam, chief executive with Maaya.

Bellam went on to say that while Microsoft and IBM are working on a similar strategies, most companies are still talking about starting something, adding that the potential for an acquisition exists and confirmed that he met with IBM. “It is too early to say what the future will be right now and we would prefer an IPO strategy,” he said. Currently Maaya is seeing $1.5 million in revenue and expects to be profitable by 2003.

Anand Rajaraman, a partner with Cambrian, added that Maaya has to ramp up its marketing efforts and continue to sign up customers.”

As part of the financing, Bill Burnham, a partner at Softbank Venture Capital, took a board seat.