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Venture Capital News: Curbside Lands $25M

2015-06-25
PALO ALTO, CA, Curbside, a Bay Area-based startup reinventing the local shopping experience, today announced that is has secured $25 million in Series B funding.
The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures and joined by previous investors Index Ventures, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang's AME Cloud Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and others. The funds will be used to expand the Curbside service to new markets and retailers.

'The response we've seen to Curbside from both shoppers and retailers since our launch last fall has been overwhelming,' said co-founder and CEO Jaron Waldman. 'The service is perfect for mobile, on-the-go consumers. We've seen rapid growth since launch, with month-over-month sales increasing in excess of 50 percent. And, the service is proving to be extremely sticky with shoppers, over 55 percent of whom have made repeat purchases.'

Curbside allows consumers to shop directly from their mobile phones and pick up right in front of the store without having to find items on shelves, wait in checkout lines or deal with the hassles of parking. The service is currently available at Target and Best Buy stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the Westfield Mall Oakridge location. Curbside has recently launched its first Target locations in New York/New Jersey, which will expand in coming months along with new locations in Southern California.

With approximately 90 percent of retail shopping still done in-store, according to a recent Census study, Curbside is out to improve the local shopping experience and deliver a novel pickup experience by:

Using proprietary location technology to provide a seamless and reliable handoff of goods in front of the store. The Curbside system notifies staff when shoppers are on approach, and does so without draining the shopper's phone battery.
Giving shoppers a reliable view of what's in stock at the stores around them, unlike other mobile shopping apps.

Providing the convenience that delivery services can't match: no delivery windows and no boxes piling up outside the front door. Curbside orders are available to pick up when and where shoppers want without the hassle and added expense of delivery services. The Curbside service is free, the app is free and the company does not mark up store prices.

'Curbside is creating a new way to shop for today's mobile-first world,' said Sam Pullara, managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures. 'It's a speedier and more convenient solution than home delivery options, which are ripe with markups and service fees, and is built to succeed in the on-demand economy while others are not.'

'Curbside represents the future of mobile commerce,' said Jerry Yang, founding partner, AME Cloud Ventures, and co-founder of Yahoo!. 'Curbside is primed to fundamentally change the way people shop - by creating a seamless way for consumers to access products from local merchants by successfully developing complex location and inventory technology.'

About Curbside

Curbside is reinventing the local shopping experience by making it faster and easier for consumers to find, buy and pick up products at local stores than ever before, with no markup in price. Curbside's technology allows it to accurately represent retailers' inventory and reliably alert local stores when customers approach. Curbside was coÂ-founded by Jaron Waldman, who founded Placebase which was later sold to Apple, and Denis Laprise, who founded Poly9 which was also acquired by Apple. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. Curbside is free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play, or by visiting www.shopcurbside.com.
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