Soldsie Receives Seed Funding

Soldsie, a service that enables purchases within comments on Facebook, has received $1 million in seed funding from institutional investors including 500 Startups, e.ventures and FundersClub. Former Facebook employees Yun-Fang Juan and Jonathan Ehrlich, Peanut Labs founder Prosper Nwankpa, and angel investors Elliot Loh and Tom Kelly also participated.

Soldsie allows brands, merchants and small business owners to use Facebook’s social features to increase online sales. The technology turns Facebook posts into digital shopping carts. Once a user has registered with Soldsie's app, commenting with the word “Sold” lets them purchase the item posted. Since its start, more than 100,000 Facebook users have registered with Soldsie's app.

On the backend, Soldsie’s platform completes the transaction and gives businesses a streamlined interface for processing and tracking sales.

“F-commerce needed a fresh perspective, and that’s what Soldsie’s technology provides,” said Alex Mittal, CEO and co-founder of FundersClub. “Cracking the code on this market would be huge, and from what I’ve seen, Soldsie is well on its way.”

How Brands Have Succeeded with Soldsie
The Soldsie platform includes more than 1,500 merchants and is currently processing over $1 million in transactions a month from clothing boutiques like Jenny Boston Boutique to professional sports teams like the San Jose Earthquakes. The platform processes payments via credit card or PayPal.. To date, more than 100,000 Facebook users have registered with the Soldsie app.

After registering with Soldsie, simply posting a photo on Facebook turns into a valuable sales tool for any business. Because Soldsie’s technology works inside of Facebook and on any device, Soldsie posts convert better than sending fans to an outside link to make a purchase. It also gives brands an opportunity to create demand that extends outside of Facebook itself.

“Before Soldsie we just weren’t engaging people enough on Facebook. We started using Soldsie about six months ago and began running Wednesday night sales to test it out,” said Jenny DeMaria, owner of Jenny Boston Boutique. “Our Facebook sales are a huge success, and they help us drive people into the store. We can’t put a price tag on the buzz these sales created.”