Gazelle Raises $12 Million Led by Physic Ventures

BOSTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston-based Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation's largest reCommerce service, announced today that Physic Ventures (www.physicventures.com) is leading its $12 million series C round of investment. Gazelle's current investors, Venrock Associates (www.venrock.com) and RockPort Capital (www.rockportcap.com), have also announced their additional investment and participation in this round of financing.  

Last year, Gazelle's business tripled as Gazelle attracted nearly 100,000 customers to trade in or recycle used electronics. Fueled by new equity, Gazelle will focus on scaling its business infrastructure to meet this rapid growth. The new funding also enables Gazelle to make additional investments in key areas of the business, including its proprietary pricing technologies and processes that continue to enhance the customer experience. Gazelle will also work with existing retail partners to build an in-store experience that brings reCommerce to physical retailer sites across the nation.  

"Physic Ventures believes that providing tools and incentives for consumers to reuse, recycle, and engage in reCommerce can dramatically reduce the environmental impact of our modern lifestyles," said Andrew Williamson, a Director at Physic Ventures. "Gazelle's impressive growth demonstrates that consumers and manufacturers are rapidly adopting the concept of reCommerce as a way to cost effectively and environmentally upgrade consumer electronics. We look forward to working with the company's talented team and existing investors to help Gazelle continue this growth."

According to Gazelle co-founder and CEO, Israel Ganot, Physic Ventures' expertise in the field of sustainable living will help further Gazelle's vision of reCommerce. "Our goal is to redefine consumption and completely change the way consumers think about buying, owning, selling, and recycling electronics. By helping us bring reCommerce to more people and build infrastructure to support the back-end processes of the business, this financing will make this goal a reality."

This round of funding is the third in Gazelle's four-year history, with its last round in 2008, led by RockPort Capital. Since 2008, Gazelle has realized aggressive growth, adding a dozen categories and 200,000 products to build upon its well-respected customer experience.  Gazelle has seen rapid expansion of its retail partnerships, including relationships with walmart.com, Sears, Kmart, Office Depot, and Costco.

ABOUT GAZELLE

Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), a service of Second Rotation, Inc., is committed to providing an easy, fast, and safe way for consumers to get cash for selling unwanted electronics or to recycle them responsibly. To date, more than 80,000 consumers have used the service as a way to clean out closets, get cash and help out a good cause. In addition, Gazelle empowers consumers to avoid time consuming and risky online experiences associated with peer-to-peer selling. Consumers can rest assured that all personal information is thoroughly removed from their item while benefiting from conveniences like free shipping and packaging. Based in Boston, Gazelle is backed by premier venture capital firms Physic Ventures, Venrock Associates and RockPort Capital Partners.

ABOUT PHYSIC VENTURES

Physic Ventures is the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in keeping people healthy by providing capital and expertise to science-based, consumer-driven health and sustainable living companies. The firm's strategy is to capitalize on major economic, social and political trends shaping the landscape of personal and planetary health, including the rapid migration toward a consumer-driven, prevention-oriented "self-care" paradigm. Physic Ventures is based in San Francisco, CA. 

ABOUT VENROCK

Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto, CA; New York, NY; and Cambridge, MA. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues an eight-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $2.5 billion in 442 companies resulting in 124 IPOs and 128 M&As over the past 40 years, Venrock's investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. With a primary focus on technology, healthcare, and energy, portfolio companies have included Adify, Adnexus Therapeutics, Apple Computer, Athenahealth, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, Intel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, StrataCom, and Vontu. For more information, please visit Venrock's website at www.venrock.com.

ABOUT ROCKPORT CAPITAL PARTNERS

RockPort Capital Partners, www.rockportcap.com, is a leading venture capital firm partnering with clean tech entrepreneurs around the world to build innovative companies and bring disruptive technologies and products to the 21st century.   RockPort's investment approach is distinguished by collaboration with management teams to foster growth and create value.  Combining domain expertise with policy and international experience, RockPort has a proven track record of leveraging its insights and networks to foster growth and create value.

SOURCE Gazelle