Redbeacon, which won the TechCrunch50 launch conference in 2009, has raised a $7.4 million round of financing. The round was led by Mayfield Fund and Venrock.
Raj Kapoor, Managing Director at Mayfield, and Brian Ascher, General Partner at Venrock, will join the company’s board of directors.
This is Redbeacon’s first outside round of financing. The company has funded development and operations to date with just $200,000 – $150,000 from the founders and $50,000 for winning TechCrunch50.
The company lets users search, browse and book local service providers – from plumbers to lawyers – on its website. Service providers pay a fee to Redbeacon for new paying customers, or in some categories, like lawyers, for a lead.
Soon the company will launch a widget that allows third party websites to embed core Redbeacon features into their sites, and Redbeacon will pay a share of revenue generated from those customers. See redbeacon.com/p/affiliate for more information.
They are live in the Bay Area and will soon expand to new markets, says CEO Ethan Anderson.
I sat down with Anderson and incoming board member and investor Kapoor in our studio in San Francisco to talk about the company’s progress and the new funding round. Anderson wanted to wait to raise any outside money until they’d fine tuned the model in at least one market and could show good conversion from website visitors to bookings. The video is below.
Redbeacon allows consumers who need a service performed to find and interact with local businesses and professionals. Redbeacon goes beyond returning business listings with ratings and reviews by helping consumers determine the right service provider for their specific needs and allowing them to compare price quotes and book appointments online. Consumers describe what they need done and specify when and where their job should take place. Using patent-pending machine learning and semantic technology, Redbeacon determines the best...
Founded in 1969, Mayfield Fund is a venture capital firm located in Menlo Park, CA. The firm has over $2.7 billion under management with expertise in communications/wireless, consumer/media, enterprise software and semiconductors.
Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues a seven-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $2.2 billion in 417 companies resulting in 124 IPOs and 117 M&A exits over the past 39 years, Venrock’s investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently...
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