By Falguni Bhuta

Mobile software maker Dexterra said this week it will get as much as $25 million in additional funding and has hired former Siebel Systems CFO Ken Goldman to be the group’s new finance chief.

The Bothell, Washington-based company, which is expected to formally announce its new funding and finance chief in January, told Red Herring its new round could top $40 million. Mr. Goldman ran Siebel’s finances from 2000 until the company was sold to database software giant Oracle in 2005 (see Oracle Buys Siebel for $5.85 billion).

Oracle Buys Siebel for $5.85 billion

Four-year-old Dexterra, which had already raised $52 million, makes software that enables companies to transfer customer relationship, inventory and billing programs and data to their employees’ mobile devices. Dexterra earlier this year received a fourth round of $18 million.

Motorola, Intel Capital, Canaan Partners, and Sigma Partners, already investors in Dexterra, participated in the company’s latest round, in addition to other unnamed parties. Customers include Motorola, IKON, Dell, Vodafone, Telstra, and Emirates.

Dexterra’s revenue has grown at an annual rate of 250 percent over the last for four years, making it one of the fastest growing in the mobile business software sector, said Gartner analyst Michael King.

Mr. King said the mobile infrastructure market could become the hottest software sector in coming years, reaching $1 billion worldwide by 2010 (see Serving the Mobile Workforce). IDC projects the number of mobile workers will grow by about 30 percent from 650 million worldwide in 2004 to more than 850 million in 2009—about one-quarter of the global work force.

IDC projects the number of mobile workers will grow by about 30 percent from 650 million worldwide in 2004 to more than 850 million in 2009—about one-quarter of the global work force.

CEO Rob Loughan, who sold Octane Software to E.piphany for $3.2 billion, hopes to build Dexterra into one of the top four mobile business software makers and take it public by early 2008.

But it will have to contend with numerous independent rivals as well as giants such as Nokia, IBM, Sybase, SAP, all of which have deep pockets and far more clout. Nokia bought mobile infrastructure provider Intellisync for $430 million in November 2005, while IBM is tuning its WebSphere integration software for mobility and SAP is doing the same with NetWeaver.

Gartner’s Mr. King also noted that groups such as Oracle or Microsoft, both of which have fallen behind in the mobile software segment, could be eyeing companies like Dexterra as takeover targets.

Contact the writer: fbhuta@redherring.com