Blog and media network Sugar Inc. will announce a third round of funding today, $16 million from Sequoia Capital.
They are using at least some of the proceeds, they say, to buy out NBC, which invested $10 million in the company in June 2007. The NBC investment came with an advertising sales deal that the companies dissolved last year.
The company has now raised a total of $31 million in capital.
Sugar is also announcing the acquisition of Los Angeles-based Shopflick, a video powered fashion marketplace founded by Patrick Yee in 2007. It raised $7 million last year and brought on board David Grant as CEO.
Grant, who is the former President of Fox TV Studios, will become president of a newly formed Sugar division called Sugar Digital Entertainment, which will “expand the Sugar brand into online video, television, film, videogames and other content formats.” → Read More
The YouTube generation needs its QVC. That is what Shopflick is trying to become, but with an edgier feel targeted at younger Internet shoppers. The LA-based startup has raised $7 million in a series A financing, led by Panorama Capital and Venrock. Earlier it raised $1 million in angel money, including from former Guba CEO Tom McInerney. Like eBay, the company plans to make money from listing and transaction fees. But its model is flipped from eBay’s in that it will try to make more from the transaction fees than the listing fees up front. Shopflick takes a 12.5 percent cut of each transaction, slightly more than eBay, but has waived listing fees for now, and plans to make them as low as $10 to $20 a month. (eBay’s listing fees can be ten times as much). Since its private beta launch in April, Shopflick has quietly opened its doors to all comers. Now instead of watching mindless cat videos at your desk, you can be shopping instead. Somehow they don’t feel like commercials if you are actually selecting which ones to watch because you are in the market for a wallet made out of a tie or a mushroom spice jar. Sellers on the site tend to be hipster boutiques and designers. The videos can be highly personal and slightly irreverent. LA rock band Malbec even has a store where they sell T-Shirts, stickers, and CDs. Here’s one: http://www.shopflick.com/shopflick/flash/shopflickEmbedPlayer.swf Shopflick: Get this! | Get your own Store! CrunchBase Information Shopflick Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
It was only a matter of time before someone created an online video-shopping marketplace. Mix together eBay and YouTube and you get Shopflick, a Los Angeles-based startup in private beta that wants to bring the art of video selling to the Web. Sellers can set up shop with their own page highlighting their store and the products they have for sale. Most of the information is presented in video format in Shopflick’s own buyer-friendly player that features a big “Buy Now” button. Shoppers can add comments to each item, share them, bookmark them as a favorite, or embed them elsewhere on the Web. We have 2,000 invites for TechCrunch readers (sign up here—the first 500 will be let in immediately and the rest over the next few weeks). So far the startup has raised $1 million from angel investors in LA. But Shopflick has a heavy-hitter CEO in David Grant, the founder and former president of Fox TV Studios. Says Grant: I think it can be an enormous business. Video selling is what television is. TV Commercials. People have tried to replicate video selling on television, which is a mistake. The front page of Shopflick features a big video player that scrolls through featured items and could also become a prime advertising spot. Just like on TV, Shopflick plans on using its front page to promote items based on limited quantities or time. Shoppers can also browse by category, keyword, or tag. Most of the sellers—there are about 50 of them in the beta right now—are boutique shopkeepers, jewelery makers, or furniture designers from Brooklyn or LA. Here is an example of a video by Uhuru, a Brooklyn furniture design company that uses sustainable materials: http://www.shopflick.com/shopflick/flash/shopflickEmbedPlayer.swf Shopflick: Buy this product | Get your own Store Player http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDc4NDI*NDc3MzAmcHQ9MTIwNzg*MjQ3MjU1MSZwPTE4MDYyMSZkPWxpc3RpbmclNUYyNCZuPQ==.swf The site feels a little bit like what Etsy would be if it had video, except its sellers don’t focus on handmade goods. There is definitely an independent vibe. The site is geared towards women. It is heavy on hand creams, lingerie and kid’s clothes. But not the 50-year-old women in middle America who tend to watch the Home Shopping Network or QVC. Shopflick is going more for the hip 18-to-34-year-olds who live in big cities. Founder and president Patrick Yee says: It is an $8 billion business on cable, but we are moving it from a linear model to an on-demand model, → Read More
San Francisco, CA
