Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Punchbowl fills up with $2M in first round

By Mass High Tech Staff

Party planning website operator Punchbowl Software Inc. reports completing a $2.1 million Series A round of financing. Investors include New York-based Contour Venture Partners, Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., and the eCoast Angel Network, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based angel investment group, company officials said.

Framingham-based Punchbowl, founded in 2006, plans to use the capital to expand its development team and pursue other business strategies. The company’s website, Mypunchbowl.com, which is free for users, generates revenue from advertisements combined with percentage deals with party site event bookers and party supply retailers. Visitor traffic has grown by more than 20 percent each month during the past year, officials said.

Punchbowl was co-founded by Matt Douglas, a former product development manager for Adobe Systems Inc. In 2007, Douglas projected the website to generate $98,000 in revenue that year and $407,000 during 2008. The company’s business plan was featured in Mass High Tech’s The Pitch late last year.

The eCoast Angel Network is one of at least six angel investment groups operating in New Hampshire. The group was formed in July 2000 to invest in early-stage companies involved with advanced technology, e-commerce, health care, and industrial products and services. Contour Venture Partners is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies that operate in the Internet, financial services, digital media and business sectors. Intel Capital, founded in 1991, has invested more than $7.5 billion in 1,000 companies. Last year, the corporate venture firm invested $639 million in 166 deals.