Shopping discovery application firm, Zoomingo Inc that launched operations last month, has secured $1.3 million from two early-stage venture capital firms -- Naya Ventures and Benaroya Capital – besides several prominent angel investors, the company said in a statement today.
The proceeds of the funds will be used to enhance the current application, build a retailer platform, and grow the Zoomingo community through expanded outreach to new customers and retail partners.
The company is co-founded by IIT Bombay grads Shirish Nadkarni and Krishnan Seshadrinathan, who also co-founded Livemocha, the world's largest language learning website with more than 10 million users. Nadkarni also founded mobile email pioneer TeamOn, which was acquired by RIM in 2002.
Zoomingo is a mobile ‘shopping discovery’ app that finds the best sales in local retail stores and provides consumers instant access to thousands of sale items on fashion, beauty and home goods at top retailers in local markets in the US. The company offers shoppers instant access to thousands of sale items from more than 70,000 local retail outlets and boutiques, delivering results in an easy-to-browse, easy-to-use format.
The company also encourages shoppers to share their shopping discoveries with other members of the Zoomingo community -- giving consumers even more information about sales in their area, and enhancing the app's reach to smaller stores and boutiques.
"Zoomingo is at the forefront of the most interesting developments in location-based social shopping, an explosive growth area driven by rapid smart phone adoption," said Dayakar Puskoor, managing director of Dallas-based Naya Ventures, who will join Zoomingo's board of directors.
Naya Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused mainly on US and India-based companies. The company invests in and partners with companies that offer products and services in the Mobile and SaaS arenas.
"Zoomingo provides a convenient online and mobile shopping tool for consumers who increasingly rely on their smart phones to enhance their in-store shopping experience," said John Carleton, director of venture capital for Seattle-based Benaroya Capital.
The Benaroya Company has been among the Seattle region's leading private venture capital firms. In recent years, three Benaroya portfolio companies have gone public and more than 20 have had private exits. Prior technology investments include Tegic, Cequint, Swype, Sparkbuy, Coinstar, Commquest, Peapod and Zones. Active investments include Zoomingo, Avalara, Calico Energy, DNAResponse, Cozi, Avail Media, Scout Analytics, Buuteeq, Zipline, Pacstar and Genoa Healthcare.
