Boston, MA— Pingup — South Boston-based Pingup, developer of consumer-to-business text service, announced today the completion of their $1 million seed financing round with major participation from Venture Capital firm, Avalon Ventures. Avalon Ventures, who operates from offices in Cambridge, MA and La Jolla, CA, is an early stage venture capital fund focused on information technology and life sciences. They are passionate about backing talented entrepreneurs seeking to build market-leading companies.
Avalon’s long-standing and successful focus has been on seed and early stage companies. “We believe this is the most challenging and rewarding period of company creation – we are former entrepreneurs driven by passionate people pursuing disruptive ideas in ever changing market environments”, says Avalon Managing Director Rich Levandov. Avalon, whose portfolio includes early investments in companies such as “Words With Friends” creator ZYNGA, believes that Pingup represents just such an endeavour. “Pingup is an exciting startup because they are advancing communication between people and businesses and are potentially disruptive to existing communication methods”, says Brady Bohrmann, Managing Director at Avalon. He continues, “Pingup’s future plan for next-generation “e-service” integration has the potential to redraw the blueprint for commercial relationships between consumers and businesses ranging from the local pizza joint to Fortune 100 companies.”
Pingup is currently available nationwide for businesses to self-enroll, but has focused their launch efforts between Boston and Miami, where they are enjoying significant early adoption by both businesses and consumers. Their strategic partnership with leading e-tailer Karmaloop has enabled the company to tap into the desirable “generation Y” market. Among the most ardent users of the service are the nightlife industry, who see Pingup as a perfect fit for their business model. Most major nightclubs in Boston and Miami’s “South Beach” are available on the Pingup system and customers can now get answers to their questions or make table reservations at world renowned venues such as LIV Miami and Royale Boston.
