Retrevo secures $8 Mn funding

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Sunnyvale: Vipin Jain cofounded Retrevo, the matchmaking service between consumers and electronics that simplifies people's relationship lifecycle with electronic products, today announced it has secured $8 million in a second round of institutional funding. The round was led by Alloy Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and will be used for product development, partnership expansion and consumer marketing. "The consumer electronics purchase process can be daunting to the average consumer not because of an absence of information and recommendations, but rather the overwhelming, unorganized, and often contradictory advice that exists in retail channels, on the Internet and via word-of-mouth," said Kurt Scherf, Vice President and Principal Analyst with Parks Associates, an internationally recognized consumer technology research firm. "Retrevo's role in organizing and summarizing the key research, opinions and comparisons of consumer electronics products will grow in importance as consumers seek the best available information in making a purchasing decision." "With the proliferation of electronics products, features and required knowledge, it has become extremely difficult for electronics retailers to keep up and guide consumers effectively. Consumers want simple, objective and honest advice and are turning to Retrevo for empowerment," said Vipin Jain, CEO of Retrevo. "Retrevo aims to become the site that consumers can trust to get all their electronics products information in the simplest and visually intuitive forms. Over the last 12 months we have quadrupled our users and their engagement - a strong validation that consumers are demanding control and simplification and Retrevo is the place where they can get it. Closing funding from top notch investors Norwest Venture Partners and Alloy Ventures is a testament to the confidence they have in our team, the technology and the vision." Retrevo has created a totally new paradigm for how consumers find, buy and use electronics. The Retrevo Product Advisor empowers consumers to not only find products with the best community sentiment but also shop for products by value and find those products that deliver the best bang for the buck. Consumers quickly gain knowledge and confidence before walking into a retail store or purchasing products online. For example, consumers may find it interesting that while the Apple iPod grabs all the attention, Retrevo's product advisor actually lists the Cowon D2 as the top MP3 player by value and overall community sentiment. Retrevo is playing in a sector with huge market opportunities. The January 2008 Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits showed more than 94 percent of the U.S. online population shopped on the web in 2007 with over 23 percent of purchases being consumer electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that total CE revenues in the U.S. for 2008 will hit $170 billion dollars with the average household spending over $1,600 on CE products.