Retrevo, electronic product shopping site, raises $8M

Venture Beat — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:00:56 -0400

Retrevo, the Silicon Valley company that helps you shop electronic products, and then helps you after the purchase (with troubleshooting tips), has raised $8 million more in a second round of financing.

We reported on the company’s first fundings, which totaled $3.9 million (see our coverage here and here), and then later on its release of a set of useful comparison features. Retrevo now offers a great overview of a category of products. For example, if you choose mobile phones, it gives you a way to select them based on value, taking into account their price and features. It provides an overall sentiment rating for each product, which also takes into account user reviews.

We wrote before that it has joined a very crowded field, and today it remains as crowded as ever. Retrevo thinks its offer to help you find a way to troubleshoot a product after you buy will make it stand out. But is that enough to get it noticed, and to make money? It’s too early to say. Chief executive Vipin Jain says he aims to break even next year, from ads, but also from referral fees. He won’t say how much traffic the site has, but says traffic has quadrupled in the last year.

The round was led by Alloy Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.

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Retrevo, electronic product shopping site, raises $8M