Tech firm moving HQ from Silicon Valley to Carmel

A publicly traded Silicon Valley-based technology company is moving its headquarters to Carmel, where it plans to add 24 “high-wage” employees by the end of 2019, state and local officials announced Monday afternoon.

San Mateo-based Determine Inc. said it plans to invest $720,200 to lease and equip a 9,000-square-foot office at 615 W. Carmel Drive to begin using as its corporate headquarters this month.

The company already has a satellite office in Carmel. It employs about 35 workers in Indiana and 160 worldwide.

Determine sells contract-lifecycle-management software to customers in industries including financial services, manufacturing and health care. The company said its cloud-based software allows enterprises to analyze their supplier relationships and contractual requirements, which paves the way for controlling costs, driving revenue and improving workflow.

Its customers include Kellogg’s, Republic Airways, Sony Music Entertainment, Brunswick, AOL, Cushman & Wakefield, and Nordstrom.

Determine was previously known as Selectica Inc., a company founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1996 that made "internet selling-system" software.

The firm went public at $30 a share in March 2000. The stock soared to more than $140 a share but slid more than 97 percent over the next year in the wake of the dot-com bust.

The stock has never fetched more than $12 a share since then and traded around $1.27 a share early Monday.

Selectica acquired Carmel-based Iasta, which provided supply-management software solutions, in June 2014, and France-based B-pack, which made procurement software, in July 2015. Selectica changed its name to Determine in October.

Iasta was founded in 2000 and had about 60 employees between its Hamilton Crossing office in Carmel and an office in the United Kingdom at the time of the acquisition. It was founded by David Bush, Jason Treida, and Todd Epple.

Determine, which has $13.7 million market capitalization, reported about $20 million in revenue in the last fiscal year, which ended March 31. It lost $13.7 million last year and $8.2 million the previous fiscal year.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said offered Determine Inc. up to $400,000 in conditional tax credits based on the company's job-creation plans.

“We are so excited to be moving from California’s Silicon Valley to Indiana’s Silicon Prairie to make our new corporate home,” said Determine CEO Patrick Stakenas in a written statement. “The exceptionally high quality of the talent pool in Indiana, the strong, growing technology sector along with a centralized location, which makes it easy for us to stay in touch with our operations in Europe as well as the West Coast, made the choice obvious.”