YC Alum Curebit Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

Y Combinator alum Curebit, an online customer referral platform that leverages social media for ?word-of-mouth? advertising, has just raised $1.2 million in funding. The investors include 500 Startups, Karl Jacob, Auren Hoffman, Dharmesh Shah, Gordon Tucker, Alex Lloyd of Accelerator Ventures, and others.
The funding will be used for continued product development and a slight expansion to the team involving three new hires (two developers, one designer) to the company?s now five-person outfit.
Curebit, for those unfamiliar, works to optimize the referral systems for eCommerce platforms and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies (See previous coverage here).
The startup offers a few different ways for businesses to take advantage of its tools, the first being a post-purchase campaign that allows customers to share the details of the purchase on Facebook, Twitter or via email, as soon as the transaction completes.
?We figured when?s a better time than when you?ve basically voted with your wallet, saying ?hey, I like this store,?? explains Curebit Co-founder Allan Grant.

Companies can also use Curebit?s technology to build standalone referral pages that are accessible at any time, or in one-off campaigns meant to further the reach of existing referral programs.

The startup says it now around 1,000 customers, including everything from smaller, e-commerce stores to larger customers like Giggle.com and a newly signed (but unannounced) top 20 retailer and a consumer foods company. The technology is also available as a plugin for 14 platforms, including Shopify and Magento.
By leveraging social media for the word-of-mouth referrals, Curebit?s customers see higher clicks and conversions than in traditional campaigns, where, for example, customers may have come in by way of ads. The referrals are like personal recommendations from friends, and often include a benefit, like a discount for the new customer, or for both the new customer and the friend who?s doing the referring.
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