Lots of big-business software just plain sucks. Which sounds like the perfect opportunity for a startup to make some waves, of course—and a magnet for venture capital investment.
Boston-based Mendix is one of the companies trying to build a big business in that niche. And as of today, it’s got another $25 million in VC cash to bankroll the mission.
Mendix attempts to greatly speed up the process of making new enterprise software applications by letting even non-technical people get apps built. So, if a company needs to make a new mobile app that ties into its existing Web portal, for example, executives can pick the features they need and the Mendix system will create the new software.
This process is mostly automated—it’s a software platform that makes more software—although some humans are involved on the Mendix side, creating templates that customers can use to get started on their new projects.
As CEO Derek Roos told us in this profile, “There’s no big contract. The risk of building apps, and also buying apps, has completely changed, because it’s so fast you don’t need to think about it for weeks or months.”
Mendix’s new investment round led by Battery Ventures, with previous investor Prime Ventures joining. The company didn’t disclose its sales, but said annual revenues grew 115 percent last year compared to 2012.
The company, which was founded in 2006 in the Netherlands, relocated to Boston in 2012. It claims “hundreds” of customers, including Dun & Bradstreet, Genzyme, Liberty Mutual, Roche, and Sprint. Mendix last raised venture funding in 2011, with a $13 million Series A round.
