For this technology firm, move to Carmel, Ind., computes
A fast-growing software company is raising millions of dollars
from East Coast investors and bringing hundreds of jobs to
Central Indiana.
Interactions Corp., a provider of human-guided, automated
call center services for corporations, plans to hire nearly
150 people by the end of 2008. The company is based in Carmel,
at Clay Terrace mall.
Interactions Corp., which gradually has been moving its headquarters
from New Jersey to Carmel in recent months, made the move
here official with Wednesday's announcement.
Interactions said it insisted on moving to the Midwest when
it raised millions from venture capitalists.
That cuts against the more familiar story in Indiana: companies
leaving the area to find money in other parts of the country.
The company employs 95 people now, 57 of them in Carmel.
It expects to employ as many as 240 in Indiana by the end
of 2008. Those jobs will pay more than $30 an hour, on average,
or more than $63,000 a year.
The company, which has taken up residence in Clay Terrace,
has developed a software system that provides automated customer
service for its clients. Interactions employs call center
staff to verify the intent of a customer's request so its
computer system can respond accurately and quickly.
In recent years, several promising Hoosier companies moved
out of state to find investors. But Interactions' decision
to bring its high-paying jobs here could mark a shift in fortunes
for the state's efforts to keep and attract fast- growing
software firms.
"We've reached a tipping point in the software industry
(in the Indianapolis area)," said Bob Compton, a Tennessee-based
investor who backs several of Indianapolis' most successful
software firms.
Compton's investments include ExactTarget, which recently
ranked No. 56 on Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing
private companies in the nation, as well as Aprimo, a maker
of marketing software.
Compton also has been a strong contributor to Gov. Mitch
Daniels, who joined Interactions officials at a news conference
Wednesday.
Compton was an early investor in Interactive Intelligence,
which has broken into profitability and has seen its stock
soar this year.
Those three Indianapolis companies, along with Autobase,
have all received major investments from East Coast venture
capitalists. So it's not so surprising, Compton said, to see
East Coast investors go along with Interactions' plan to move
here.
"The venture industry is a very small community,"
Compton said. "And (when) you see a pattern like that
in Indianapolis, it catches your eye."
One of Interactions' investors, Sigma Partners of Boston,
is also a major investor in Aprimo. Its managing director,
Bob Davoli, is one of the nation's best-known venture capitalists.
Last year, a local startup called Xsprada moved to Austin,
Texas, after it couldn't find money here. Likewise, Carmel-based
NoInk Communications sold out to a California competitor after
it couldn't find venture capital. In 2003, West Lafayette-based
Renal Solutions moved to Pittsburgh to be near its main venture
capitalist.
Indiana did win a victory last year when a small Chicago-based
software firm, Vasc-Alert, moved to West Lafayette after receiving
an infusion from investors.
Interactions' Chief Executive Michael Cloran declined to
say how much the company has raised in venture capital. But
he said Sigma Partners and Updata Partners of New Jersey bought
into his case that the Midwest would lower the company's costs
and give officers a better place to raise families.
"By far, it was where to raise a family and where to
raise a business," said Cloran, who grew up near Cincinnati
and went to college at Indiana University.
Interactions chose Carmel after also considering the Chicago
and Cincinnati areas.
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