August Capital Invests in Swoopo

Swoopo, an auction site that combines e-commerce and entertainment, announced August Capital (www.augustcap.com) invested in the company, joining earlier investor, Wellington Partners who invested two years earlier, in late 2006.

Swoopo CEO, Gunnar Piening, speaking about the reason for Swoopo’s existence, said their mission is to bring transparency and the thrill back to online auctions. “Since our launch in the US in late 2008, we’ve seen great interest in our site with our monthly transactions growing rapidly. We are now aggressively executing our plan to roll out our brand of entertainment shopping across global markets.”

After launching in 2008, Swoopo now has almost 2 million members, according to the company’s press release. Consumers looking for a bargain are Swoopo’s targets, and the company says it satisfies those members by helping them to buy brand new items that are still under warranty, at an average price 65 percent below retail. Popular items include the new Nintendo DSi, Amazon Kindle, flat screen TVs, computers and watches. Swoopo tracks a full transaction history for each member, and it shows them bidding patterns so they can “devise their own strategies to win products at a fraction of the MSRP.

One of the company’s innovations that buyers and sellers like is preventing last-second auction sniping. If a bid is placed in the final few seconds of a Swoopo auction, the auction is extended to allow every participant to bid again.

Swoopo.com founded in 2005, is operated by Entertainment Shopping, Inc, in Cupertino, California, uses an established and proven internet business model. The company now has offices in Munich, London and Cupertino, supported by 58 employees. Swoopo auctions are available in Germany, the U.K., Austria, Spain and the U.S.

Swoopo is now funded by Wellington Partners and August Capital.

Founded in 1995, August Capital has funded an extraordinary group of entrepreneurs who have built significant, long-term value across the full range of information technologies. These companies represent an aggregate market capitalization of well over $250 billion and generate in excess of $75 billion in annual revenue around the world. This success is a testament to the entrepreneurs themselves, as well as the fundamental technologies they have created. The partners at August Capital were the earliest investors in a number of ground breaking technology companies, including Microsoft, Intuit, Seagate, Sun, Skype, Compaq, Symantec, Sybase, Atheros, Grand Junction and many more. August Capital is located in Menlo Park, California. For more information, visit: www.augustcap.com.