E-commerce company Retail Convergence raises $25 million
Retail Convergence is an e-commerce company formed out of one purchase, nine year old off-price retailer site SmartBargains.com, and newly-launched invite only private sale site Ruelala.com.
Investors include General Catalyst Partners, New England Development, Breakaway Ventures and Mugar Enterprises.
Ruelala.com is sort of like invite-only social network ASmallWorld, a social network that only lets you in if you’re very wealthy, or if you know a lot of wealthy people. Ruelala provides well-heeled online shoppers exclusive access to scheduled sales of upscale brands. Each sale on the site is schedule ahead of time, lasts two days, and features merchandise matching the season. To participate, you need to be invited by an existing Ruelala member, like ASmallWorld.
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About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.