CUPERTINO, Calif., April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Swoopo (www.swoopo.com), the world's leading auction site combining e-commerce and entertainment, today announced that August Capital (www.augustcap.com)
has invested in the company, joining Wellington Partners who invested
in late 2006. Swoopo transforms online auctions by enabling users to
strategically place winning bids for goods at a fraction of their
retail cost. "Swoopo's mission is to bring the transparency and thrill back to
online auctions," said Gunnar Piening, CEO, Swoopo. "Since our launch
in the US in late 2008, we've seen great interest in our site with our
monthly transactions growing rapidly. We are now aggressively executing
our plan to roll out our brand of entertainment shopping across global
markets." "Swoopo is a great business, with an innovative and straightforward
business model that has successfully merged entertainment and shopping
categories," added Howard Hartenbaum, General Partner, August Capital.
"More than ever, consumers are looking for a bargain and looking to
have fun. Swoopo fulfills these needs." Almost 2 million members have joined the site, which launched in the
US in late 2008. Swoopo is the closest thing to a real-life auction,
whereby brand new items under warranty including the new Nintendo DSi,
Amazon Kindle, flat screen TVs, computers and watches can be obtained
for an average of 65 percent below retail. Swoopo also provides
consumers with full transaction histories and bidding patterns to
enable consumers to devise their own strategies to win products at a
fraction of the MSRP. Just like a traditional auction, when a user places a bid in the
final moments, Swoopo extends the auction to allow every participant to
get in a new bid. This ensures that there is no 'sniping' at the last
second. Part of the appeal of Swoopo is in developing strategies and
skills to repeatedly win.
About Swoopo:
Founded in 2005, Swoopo marries e-commerce and entertainment, two
established and proven business models on the Internet, into an
exciting and innovative experience. Swoopo is available in Germany, the
U.K., Austria, Spain and the U.S. Swoopo.com is operated by Entertainment Shopping, Inc, in Cupertino,
CA and is funded by Wellington Partners and August Capital. Swoopo has
58 employees, with offices in Munich, London and Cupertino.
About August Capital
Founded in 1995, August Capital has funded an extraordinary group of
entrepreneurs who have built significant, long-term value across the
full range of information technologies. These companies represent an
aggregate market capitalization of well over $250 billion and generate
in excess of $75 billion in annual revenue around the world. This
success is a testament to the entrepreneurs themselves, as well as the
fundamental technologies they have created. The partners at August
Capital were the earliest investors in a number of ground breaking
technology companies, including Microsoft, Intuit, Seagate, Sun, Skype,
Compaq, Symantec, Sybase, Atheros, Grand Junction and many more. August
Capital is located in Menlo Park, California. For more information,
please visit: www.augustcap.com. Media Contacts:
Website: http://www.augustcap.com/
Mark de la Vina
Consort Partners
[email protected]
Tel: +415 282 4795
Kathy Johnson,
Consort Partners
[email protected]
Tel: +1 415 823 9566
Website: http://www.swoopo.com/