Bindo Raises $1.8 M. Helps Small Businesses Beat Amazon

Bindo ipadNew York ­based retail startup Bindo, founded in 2011 by Jason Ngan and Brad Lauster has raised $1.8 million in an over-subscribed seed round for international expansion. The round is co-­led by well known investor Gary Vaynerchuk, and Singapore/Tokyo­ based East Ventures. Other investors include NYC ­based Metamorphic Ventures, and other private angels with decades of experience in brick and mortar retail, e-commerce and internet ­related businesses.

Brad LausterBindo has developed a cloud­ based iPad Point of Sale (POS) system that enables 24/7 online shopping for the end consumer. Not only does the POS offer a comprehensive array of features ranging from inventory management to customer relationship management (CRM), Bindo offers merchants the mobility to consult, sell, and close the deal simultaneously, providing a VIP experience to every customer. Its CRM creates customer profiles at the point of checkout enabling the merchant to later engage with the customer post ­sale.

Jason NganMore uniquely, merchants can launch their entire store online onto web and mobile with one click and efficiently operate omni­channel commerce with one unified inventory, saving hours of store management tasks each week. This turns the POS into a powerful retail platform capable of true online and offline commerce. Bindo Marketplace then aggregates all the stores on the Bindo network, onto one consumer platform, and allows consumers to shop from their favorite neighborhood store online, and have it delivered within hours.

“Our mission at Bindo is really to strengthen local economies and support local businesses, whilst making shopping more convenient for consumers”, said Brad Lauster, co-founder of Bindo.

“Having personally experienced the difficulties small business face selling online, we wanted to find a way to bring merchants online without diluting brand awareness. We are not interested in simply providing an online storefront for merchants to promote themselves; we are aggressively co­marketing our marketplace with our merchants so that together, we have the means to battle the Goliaths of e­-commerce.”

The Bindo Marketplace app also makes mobile commerce and e­commerce infinitely more convenient for the consumer, by bridging the gap between online and offline retail. In ­store purchases are saved, viewable and re-orderable on the mobile app, and loyalty points are tracked across multiple channels. It is a hyperlocal marketplace for consumers that want to find and purchase a particular product in their neighborhood stores online, which they can do so scanning the barcode with their app.

Bindo will split the funding equally between development and sales. The development team will focus on delivering the Marketplace and providing a seamless experience for both merchant and consumer. Since Bindo’s private beta launch, inbound leads have been increasing exponentially each month; substantial resources will be allocated to scaling the sales team to support the rapidly growing number of merchant demo requests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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