drag2share: Shopping Discovery App Zoomingo Raises $1.3 Million

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/14/shopping-discovery-app-zoomingo-raises-1-3-million/

The newly launched shopping discovery app Zoomingo announced today it has secured $1.3 million in funding from early-stage VC firms Naya Ventures and Benaroya Capital along with several prominent angel investors. Previously self-funded, Zoomingo says it will use the additional capital to enhance its current mobile application, build a retailer platform and grow its community through expanded outreach to customers and retailer partners.

With this funding, Dayakar Puskoor, managing director of Dallas-based Naya Ventures, will also join Zoomingo's board of directors.

For background, Seattle-based Zoomingo was founded by language learning service Livemocha's co-founders, Shirish Nadkarni (Zoomingo CEO) and Krishnan Seshadrinathan (CTO). Nadkarni said he had the idea for the service when he noticed that his wife (an avid shopper, he says) was having trouble locating nearby sales using her mobile phone. So many of today’s apps focus on barcode scanning, deals and offers or price comparisons, but none simply rounded up all the nearby sales at local retailers in one easy-to-access mobile application.

Hence, Zoomingo.

The app pulls in sales data from major retailers using a combination of manual and automated means as well as crowd-sourcing via its “Deal Scouts,” who are positioned in several major U.S. cities. Zoomingo now provides access to 70,000 retail outlets in the U.S., and growing.

The app is available on both iPhone and Android.

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