Swoop Gives Food Websites An Injection Of Local Deals. Swoop, a startup that’s launching today, says it’s giving food websites a new way to convince readers to stick around, and to make some money in the process. CEO Ron Elwell says Swoop’s technology can look at the text of a food website and automatically inject links to local deals when they’re relevant. So, for example, if a site includes a recipe that calls for mayonnaise, Swoop can insert a link at the mention of mayonnaise, and if the reader clicks on it, a small window will open showing any nearby deals on mayonnaise.
Users can specify their zip code and which stores they’re interested in seeing deals from, and they can create shopping lists of the items they want. Elwell says Swoop will add more personalization options over time (the company tracks repeat users through cookies). You can see a Swoop-linked site here. There are other companies offering to insert advertising or affiliate links into online text.
New York Times Launching Groupon-Like Daily Deals Service. HuffPo Surpasses New York Times in Monthly U.S. Unique Visitors [CHART] Web-only - E-retailer BeachMint raises $35 million in funding. BeachMint Inc., the e-commerce company behind such subscription-based fashion e-retail sites as JewelMint.com, StyleMint.com and BeautyMint.com, has raised $35 million in its latest funding round, bringing its total funding to more than $75 million.
The retailer, which launched late in 2010, says it intends to use the money to expand to new markets and that it will launch two more e-commerce sites in the coming months. New investors who participated in this investment round include venture capital firms Accel Partners and New World Ventures, as well as investment bank Goldman Sachs. Existing investors also participated. Accel Partners’ CEO-in-residence, Greg Waldorf, joins BeachMint’s board with the investment. Waldorf was CEO of online dating site eHarmony.com from 2008 to early 2011. BeachMint introduced its first e-retail site, JewelMint.com, in October 2010 and its second site, StyleMint.com,, launched in June with actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen serving as designers.
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