Google Ventures, the search giant’s corporate venturing arm, has joined a Union Square Ventures-led, $7.5m series A funding round for Crowdfunding site CircleUp.
The site, which allows qualified investors to back consumer packaged goods companies with seed capital, and has helped a dozen enterprises, including ice cream makers, baby food manufacturers and a company offering organic butter substitutes, raise financing of more than $10m. Willagirl, which sells skincare products for the “tween” girl market, raised $1m through the site, which raised $1.5m in a seed funding round from venture capital firms Maveron Ventures, TriplePoint Capital and author Clayton Christensen in 2012.
In January 2013, Bloomberg reported that companies joining the platform would be given an opportunity to pitch to consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble.
On the back of the success of philanthropic crowdfunding services, such as Kickstarter, investment-based crowdfunding is generating considerable interest. Google Ventures joined a 2012 venture round for Upstart, a crowdfunding site which offers entrepreneurs access to finance in exchange for a share of their revenues.