Startup Bridgevine has raised $3.5 million in Series C funding from Safeguard Scientifics and Constellation Ventures to launch Offerwire, a consumer focused site that aggregates home services deals. This round brings Bridgevine’s total funding raised to $16.6 million. Bridgevine previously provided an online e-commerce engine for consumers and small businesses to find and compare deals specifically on connection and entertainment services, such as high speed internet, voice and cable TV offerings.
Bridgevine’s new consumer site, Offerwire, is an aggregation site of deals and offers not only for connection and cable services, but also for music, dvd rental, magazines, credit cards, security and more. It’s like Kayak for home and entertainment services. Users can comparison shop for deals, bundle services together, and as an added bonus, receive cash back for certain deals. Offerwire has a host of big-name vendors on board including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, Netflix, and LifeLock.
The cashback incentive makes the site particularly appealing. For example, Offerwire says that if you get cable through Time Warner, you could get as much as $100 cash back. Bridgevine’s CEO, Vinny Olmstead, says that the site offers a deal where if you bundle cable, phone and internet services together (the “triple play”), you could receive as much as $300 back from Comcast. Of course, with every referral, Bridgevine takes a cut, which ranges depending on the service bought.
Competitors to Offerwire include Digital Landing and WhiteFence.
