Storenvy raises $1.5 million seed from angels

Ronny Kerr · January 28, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/166e

Rock star angels invest: Spark Capital, First Round Capital, KPCB, Charles River Ventures and more

Storenvy, a social shopping site and platform for free online stores, announced Friday that it has secured $1.5 million in seed financing led by Spark Capital and First Round Capital with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Charles River Ventures and a bunch of prominent angel investors: David Cohen (founder of TechStars), John Maloney (president of Tumblr), David Cancel (CEO of Performable) and David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos (co-founders of Grasshopper).

Those are some big names, responsible for sizable investments in Groupon, Tumblr, Twitter and more.

Shoppers that use Storenvy are treated to a massive selection of goods in tons of categories, from men’s underwear to vinyl records to coffee and tea. And everything being sold is guaranteed to be coming from an independent seller, so you’re bound to find cool and original products.

The entire shopping experience is social, as well, meaning customers can share their favorite items with others. As of now, about 60,000 people worldwide shop through Storenvy’s selection of 2,800 online stores.

“When people think of e-commerce, they don’t think of words like ‘cool,’ ’stylish,’ or ‘fun.’ We’re changing that,” said Jon Crawford, CEO of Storenvy. “We imagined what e-commerce should look like in the midst of the social Web, and this is what we came up with. Storenvy is doing for e-commerce what Tumblr has done for blogging, making it more accessible and more social.”

For sellers, Storenvy offers an elegant and modern platform where they can set up shop entirely for free. Stores can be customized to match the style of the seller and to connect with shoppers, making for a much more social shopping experience.

Further, shops can create pages on Facebook to sell their wares through the social network also.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Storenvy is currently looking to expand its small team by hiring both a designer and engineer.