Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Searchandise Commerce relaunched with $7.5M in Series C

By Mass High Tech Staff

The navigational tools company formerly known as Guidester Inc. has changed its name to Searchandise Commerce, shifted its focus to search-based e-commerce, appointed several key positions and relaunched with $7.5 million in third round funding.

Financing for the Beverly-based company was led by new investor Cloquet Capital Partners LLC, with additional funding from returning investors DFJ Gotham, Milestone Venture Partners, Wheatley Partners, Inflection Point Ventures and Tim Draper. The additional funds should grow marketing and sales, the company said.

Searchandise Commerce offers a product ad network and uses a cost-per-click system of placing searches on the company’s SearchNet network of comparison shopping engines and retailers.

Among the company’s announced appointees are president and CEO John Federman; Laurence Stock as chief operating officer, formerly of eStara, which was bought by ATG; Nancy Lieberman, also from eStara, as vice president of marketing; and former Google Inc. partner development manager John Kennard, hired as business development director.