TreatFeed Secures $5.4 Million in Venture Funding, Closes Series A

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TreatFeed, a unique, multi-level marketing (MLM) driven shopping application, announced today it has raised $5.4 million in venture capital funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). The company provides its members a way to benefit from their ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and turn them into valuable rewards using its patent-pending Social Tree™ model. TreatFeed is developing the first monetization layer of the social graph by using its inherent network effect to help members grow a multi-level conversational network, or Social Tree. Members earn rewards for their activities and for the ongoing transactions of the people in their network. As a part of the funding, NVP General Partner Josh Goldman and Partner Tim Chang have joined TreatFeed’s board of directors.

“TreatFeed has all the ingredients for success including an accomplished leadership team, an innovative model and a product which genuinely serves the best interest of its community”

“We are dedicated to providing our members a fun and easy way to get rewarded for the conversations they are having about commerce,” said Brett Markinson, CEO, TreatFeed. “We are focused on merging elements of gaming, shopping, value and discovery on behalf of consumers. Bringing in the first funding round from NVP, and being able to tap the firm’s deep expertise in gaming and e-commerce, is a critical step for us in building out this compelling platform for consumers and retailers.”

TreatFeed is the second social-commerce business from Lagovent Group Partners Brett Markinson and Konstantin Glasmacher, founders of HauteLook. Leveraging the MLM mechanic, TreatFeed is creating a community of consumers who turn friendly sharing into points that can be redeemed for products, exclusive offers and even converted into cash. The application enables consumers and publishers alike to harness the economic power of their social influence and be rewarded for the ‘virality’ they initiate through their voice.

According to Josh Goldman, general partner, Norwest Venture Partners, “TreatFeed represents a unique and attractive opportunity for NVP: a team of proven entrepreneurs with a highly differentiated and exciting model for combining e-commerce with gaming in a very compelling way. We are impressed with TreatFeed’s vision of creating the first truly social commerce platform that rewards both users and merchants for their activity on the site. They’ve brought together an all-star team from the worlds of gaming, e-commerce and social media, and we’re excited to work with TreatFeed to launch this new service at such an exciting time in the industry.”

“TreatFeed has all the ingredients for success including an accomplished leadership team, an innovative model and a product which genuinely serves the best interest of its community,” said Tim Chang, partner, NVP. “The company is well positioned to be a leader in the e-commerce 2.0 space, leveraging social and gaming mechanics to help users not only share with but also directly benefit from their networks.”

The TreatFeed application was introduced to consumers on April 19, 2011.

TreatFeed Social Media

Website: www.treatfeed.com
Twitter: @treatfeed
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/TreatFeed/308537448578

About TreatFeed

TreatFeed is the first multi-level marketing (MLM) driven shopping application that provides its members a way to benefit from their ‘word-of-mouth’. TreatFeed’s Social Tree™ commercializes ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing, helping members turn their enthusiasm for sharing deal and product information into redeemable rewards that grow exponentially as their friends share too. Headquartered in Los Angeles, TreatFeed is the second social-commerce business from Lagovent, founders of HauteLook, and is privately held and venture backed. For more information or to join, please visit www.treatfeed.com.