NEARBYNOW, INC. RAISES $12 MILLION TO EXPAND INTERNET AND MOBILE LOCAL SHOPPING SERVICES

 

 

NEARBYNOW, INC. RAISES $12 MILLION TO EXPAND INTERNET AND MOBILE LOCAL SHOPPING SERVICES

 

Series C Investment, Partnership Agreement with TheFind, Inc., and New iPhone Application to Extend Ability to Find and Reserve Nearby Products

Los Altos, CA – May 19, 2008 - NearbyNow, the online service that allows US-based consumers to search inventory at stores in their local shopping mall and reserve items to pick up, today announced a new investment of $11.75 million led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) to expand the company’s Internet and mobile local shopping services.

Also announced today --NearbyNow has partnered with TheFind, Inc., a leading shopping search engine for discovering lifestyle goods, to offer online shoppers using TheFind.com the ability to reserve products at select local retailers.

NearbyNow Extends Services with Partnership with TheFind, Inc.

NearbyNow and TheFind Inc. have agreed to join together to enhance the shopping experience for millions of Internet users by integrating online shopping search with local store inventories. Shoppers using TheFind.com will soon be able to simply click a button to search local store inventories for the products they like and reserve the items for pickup at over 30,000 participating store locations of over 200 leading national retailers. This capability will greatly simplify local shopping by letting consumers, for the first time, search and find the desired product online and then have it put on hold for purchase at a local store location.

“Contrary to early predictions, people are coming to recognize that e-commerce isn't where the Internet is having its greatest impact,” said Michael Boland, senior analyst at The Kelsey Group. “Instead, the Internet is gaining increasing influence over offline local purchase behavior, which is a much larger category. We’re looking at local search more in terms of leading and tracking that behavior, from online research to offline conversion.”

“Local search is one of the fastest growing trends on the Internet today. It is an area in which we are continually focused on expanding,” said Siva Kumar, CEO of TheFind, Inc., “Consumers want to combine the ease of online search with the cost savings, timeliness and hands-on product interaction that can be found by shopping locally. The integration of our two core services – our comprehensive and powerful product search capabilities and NearbyNow’s incredible local inventory access – will provide the most efficient and easy shopping experience for consumers. TheFind.com shoppers will be able to find more products than ever, locate their items nearby and pick them up all in the same day, saving time and money. By successfully converting online researchers into local shoppers, we can dramatically expand the multi-billion dollar online shopping industry to include the offline world.”

Shoppers on TheFind.com will experience the integrated technology via a “Check Local Inventory” button that that appears in the mouse-over information next to all the products from the over 200 national retailers supported by NearbyNow. A consumer clicking on that button will then be prompted to choose a local store location so that NearbyNow can check inventory of that product at that store and then reserve the item for a scheduled pickup time.

About NearbyNow, Inc.

NearbyNow, Inc. provides a unique online service that allows consumers to find products, brands, and sales near them at any time using the Internet or mobile phones. NearbyNow powers hundreds of shopping centers across the U.S., allowing shoppers to search store inventory and put items on hold without placing a phone call. The company also creates an efficient marketing tool for retailers to target nearby consumers, helping to drive sales by turning online shoppers into in-store buyers. Find it locally, put it on hold, and pick it up within minutes. NearbyNow is headquartered in Los Altos, CA. Additional information can be obtained by phone at (650) 947-1300 or via the Web at www.nearbynow.com.

 

About TheFind Inc.

TheFind.com offers the leading shopping search engine that delivers comprehensive, authentic and visually compelling results for products, specializing in the lifestyle goods category. From the most popular e-commerce sites to the most unique, hard-to-find brands, TheFind.com uniquely crawls the entire Web to find more than 200 million products from over 500,000 stores. By using its patent-pending “product ranking” technology, TheFind.com displays the best-selling products, styles, brands and stores for any shopping search right on the first page of results – saving consumers time and money. TheFind Inc. family includes leading fashion shopping website Glimpse, which specifically caters to fashion-savvy shoppers searching for the latest trends and hottest apparel products, and TheFindGreen which finds organic brands, green stores and environmentally-friendly products all in one place. TheFind Inc. promotes shopping that gives back to the community through its Color For A Cause campaigns, which have included charitable beneficiaries such as The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and Global Green USA.TheFind Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is backed by leading investors Bain Capital Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.