Then it became the biggest marketing machine, and everybody took out ads. Now the ads are outsourced to DoubleClick. Escalate is building its second data-hosting center and will launch with five or six big customers. Mondus entered the U.S. market after raising two rounds of venture capital in Europe. It handles purchasing needs in 36 categories, including services.
Businesses pay nothing to submit bids, and suppliers compete to lower the price.
Suppliers pay commissions to Mondus, which works to strike deals with search engines and Web sites, like Dow Jones, where many small businesses go for information. Mondus was taken aback when Oracle in July announced its intentions to enter the SMB procurement market after meeting with Mondus under nondisclosure earlier in the year. Mondus runs on Oracle and Sun. But CEO Alexander Straub says Oracle has not figured out how to compete, and the market remains an untapped niche. Intel, which is watching Mondus, agrees.