ClairMail has plans to expand at San Rafael Corporate Center

Monday, March 22, 2010, 4:50 am

By Loralee Stevens, Business Journal Staff Reporter

About 75 ClairMail employees will move into new headquarters at 781 Lincoln in San Rafael.

NOVATO – ClairMail, the fast-growing provider of mobile banking solutions, is trading Hamilton Landing for the San Rafael Corporate Center, the company said today.

It’s the second loss of a major tenant at Hamilton Landing announced this month. Last week Walt Disney Co. said it would shut down its 420-employee ImageMovers studio at the end of the year.

Six-year-old ClairMail is doubling its space to 12,000 square feet with room to expand, said CEO Peter Daffern. The move, which will involve about 75 of ClairMail’s 120 employees, is expected to take place in late June or early July.

The company is hiring and expects to have 200 employees by the end of the year.

“We love Hamilton, but San Rafael is more centrally located, closer to San Francisco and the Corporate Center is a Class A building, an excellent showcase for our products and services,” said Mr. Daffern.

ClairMail was a pioneer and is the current leader in mobile phone services. Its technology allows users of cell phones and other hand-held devices to bypass interactive voice-response systems or call centers and directly access account information and make transactions via text messaging.

It also enables two-way communication between the bank and the customer, so banks can send out actionable alerts or advertise new services.

Through its distributors – about 50 of the world’s leading banks and financial institutions – ClairMail now reaches 200 million people world-wide, said Mr. Daffern.

“Right now ClairMail users are making two transactions per second. By the end of the year they’ll be making 15 to 30 transactions per second. The speed with which this market is taking off is unimaginable,” he said.

ClairMail was initially funded by Silicon Valley investors. Now it is funding its own growth, plowing profits back into the company.

The company has signed a five-year lease on the new headquarters, and Mr. Daffern doesn’t contemplate a move out of Marin County as long as rental rates are reasonable and hires are plenty.

“When we chose to start up here, we were warned we wouldn’t find the talent we needed. But in my 25 years of growing software companies, I’ve never encountered the level of tech talent that we found in Marin. It’s rocket-scientist-class talent,” said Mr. Daffern.

The lease for the space at 781 Lincoln in San Rafael was arranged by Steven Leonard and Trevor Buck of Cassidy Turley BT Commercial, and Wick Polite of Seagate Properties Inc.