Movaris Does Admin. Work for $8M

How about an Intranet working as the office manager? Instead of having to find the person in charge of ordering printer toner, you can just go to the Intranet and purchase it yourself. Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) thinks it’s a pretty good idea. Today, the VC led an $8 million Series B round of financing for Movaris, which does exactly that.

The Campbell, Calif., -based company claims it allows businesses to manage their daily functions better. “The company has an automation product that touches all the employees. You might use it to put in time for vacation or rejigger your 401k plan,” says Erik Straser, a general partner at MDV and Movaris’ newest board member. “The system reaches out with ease to all employees and it handles multiple processes great. If you needed a new computer and your boss and a tech person had to sign off on that, the system would make sure the request made it to both parties. It also removes the paper trail but keeps a record.”

There are plenty of businesses that could use less paper and Movaris is targeting them. Kurt Garbe, Movaris’ CEO, says, “We’re gaining traction in the government sector, healthcare and financial services area. Those areas need to focus on being more efficient.”

While Movaris is breaking into those areas, it already counts Adobe, CalPERS and Corporate Express as customers, in addition to 15 others.

Its customer base is not surprising. Founded in 1998, the company has been shipping its product for two and a half years is readying to release a revised version of its product in the next two weeks. The company is already seeing revenue but would not disclose when it expects to be profitable.

MDV was joined this round by Redpoint Ventures, which was the only investor in Movaris’ $7 million Series A round in 2000. Prior to that, Movaris had collected a several hundred thousand from family and friends.

“The founder of this company was looking for software to help him do his job better. He never found it so he built it himself. Then we spent two and half years working with the early customers and figuring out what else was needed,” says Garbe, who joined in August 2001 and focused on building out the sales team. The company had about eight employees then and now has over 100.

Moreover, Movaris plans on using the proceeds from this round for continued product development and to continue to expand the national sales team.

MDV’s Straser hopes the company uses the new money wisely. “I think the challenge with the Series A round was to validate themselves in the market. They did that. Now the goal is to build out and better hone the focus of the company. We really need to build out a sales and marketing team and execute well,” he says.

Moreover, Straser would like to see Movaris head to the public markets eventually but could just as easily be happy seeing the company be bought. Additionally, Straser is fairly certain Movaris is going to need another before it considers any exits.

Contact Danielle Fugazy