Zumur, an online shopping engine, has received the first half of a $1.4 million seed round. The funds will be used to help the company refine the engine for its initial closed beta and extended beta launch. The site is expected to officially launch in time for the 2014 holiday season.
The early stage investment was led by Lewis Smoak, a founding partner of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. Several other South Carolina investors in the industrial and consulting industries also participated.
A free service for shoppers, Zumur is designed to provide a fast and unbiased online search experience, showing results from a large list of merchants and allowing consumers to find the best deal.
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Information from approximately 50 online and brick-and-mortar retailers, conventional shopping aggregators, auction sites, classified ads and even sites, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, is collected and published on the Zumur site. On the back end, Zumur collects detailed data regarding the types of products, specs and price points consumers are seeking.
“Our goal with Zumur is to eliminate the friction, frustration and wasted time that now goes along with conventional online comparison shopping,” said Abhishek Tiwari, Founder of Zumur. “This seed investment is firm validation of our model and our mission, and we’re eager to give consumers a faster, easier and better way to buy with confidence.”
