US review site Yelp secures $100 funding from Elevation Partners
28 Jan 2010
Yelp, the US start-up business ratings and reviews site has received $100 million in funding from private equity firm Elevation Partners yesterday after Google failed to acquire it last month for $500 million.
The New York City- and San Francisco-headquartered Elevation Partners, which has $1.9 billion of assets under management, will make a $25-million investment in Yelp through the purchase of Series E preferred stock and increase its total investment in Yelp to $100 million through a planned purchase of shares from vested employees and other eligible shareholders.
Marc Bodnick, co-founder of Elevation Partners will join the board of Yelp after this funding.
The investment values Yelp at approximately $475 million, $25 million lower than the $500 million offered by Google to acquire it last month. (See: Google to acquire reviews site Yelp for over $500 million: report)
Based in San Francisco, Yelp is a privately held company founded in 2004 by two PayPal veterans, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons, to help people locate local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics in their vicinity.
The five-year old start up review site had raised $31 million in venture capital in 2008 from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, and expected to post revenue of about $30 million last year.
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