Mertado Launches Mertado TV Bringing Home Shopping Experience to the Social Web

Mertado, a leading social shopping company that lets consumers discover unique, high quality products for the home and kitchen, today announced the launch of Mertado TV, an innovative shopping experience that combines lifestyle video content with product selection on the Social Web. Mertado TV showcases syndicated content originally developed by leading programmers such as Food Network, Fine Living, and Better TV with home and kitchen products in the Mertado catalogue—all integrated on the Facebook® platform for a complete “social shopping” experience. During the beta test of Mertado TV undertaken in August, Mertado shoppers increased their repeat purchase activity by 250% when exposed to video content.

“Our mission is to expose a selection of high quality, unique, lifestyle-oriented products for the home to consumers wherever they spend their time,” said Vijay Chittoor, Founder and CEO of Mertado. “Combining our product catalogue with leading lifestyle programming on the leading online community was the logical next step in truly creating a rewarding social shopping experience—and the numbers prove that it’s a hit.”

Booz & Company estimates that social commerce revenue will reach $30 billion in 2015. To fuel Mertado’s expansion with Mertado TV, the company also announced that it has closed a $2.3M Series A funding round. Rustic Canyon Partners joined previous investors Blumberg Capital and Redpoint Ventures in the financing round. A member of the Y Combinator class of Spring 2010, Mertado has raised a total of $3.3 million to date.

“Mertado is an innovator in the social shopping sector and continues to find new channels & partnerships to extend the social shopping experience,” said Bruce Taragin, Managing Director at Blumberg Capital. “We’re thrilled to be backing them in this next phase of growth as they combine rich content with commerce & community, for a highly compelling customer experience.” As part of the Series A funding round, Taragin has joined the Mertado Board of Directors.

Mertado TV is now available on Mertado.com and will soon be available at other Web destinations. Mertado was recently selected by Press Enterprise’s Enterprise Media Group, a leading source in Southern California for News, Sports, Weather and Classifieds, to develop a co-branded social shopping site. Mertado TV will launch on Press Enterprise’s network in October, 2011.

About Mertado

Launched in April 2010, Mertado is a leading social shopping company based in Redwood City, California. The first e-tailer built natively on the Facebook® platform, Mertado enables its members to discover and buy new and innovative lifestyle-oriented products for the home and kitchen. These products are available at the Company’s website, www.Mertado.com. Mertado encourages social interaction through videos, sharing and commenting. The Company is funded by prominent venture capital and angel investors, including Rustic Canyon Partners, Blumberg Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Y Combinator.