Sextant Group led the latest round, along with Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures, a venture capital limited partnership of Adobe Software. Granite and Adobe also led Netclerk's initial round of venture capital, along with Integral Capital Partners, Wheatley Partners, Osprey Ventures and Angel Investors LP.

Netclerk president Jeff Kraatz says the funding will be used to restructure the organization and help clear a path to profitability. Kraatz says the company's revenue was "slightly under $1 million" last year and expects NetClerk to become a profitable company by next year. He declined to disclose the company's fifth-year revenue projections.

For a monthly subscription fee, Netclerk's PermitCentral application allows contractors and building professionals a centralized online system to access, complete and submit all their building permit applications in 1,400 cities nationwide. NetClerk.com charges contractors $100 a month to process up to 8 permits and $300 a month to process up to 30 permits. For the other side of the equation, Netclerk's CityCentral online permit processing system allows city planners to review, approve and manage those same applications.

Kraatz said the majority of registered users are small contractors, but there are some big names on the NetClerk user roster, including Sears, Lowe's and Home Depot. According to Kraatz, many large contracting firms outsource the application process to "the small guy who uses NetClerk."

NetClerk counts permitsnow.com, a small regional competitor based in the Baltimore area, a small competitor. The company serves about 25 cities. Permits.com, originally established as a way for the entertainment industry to get filming permits in New York and Los Angeles, also has recently begun processing construction permits.

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