US-based mobile shopping app developer Wish has secured $19m in its first funding round, which was co-led by corporate-backed venture capital firm Formation 8 and GGV Capital according to TechCrunch.
Founded in California in 2011, Wish is a social platform that allows users to discover, collect and share products with friends. As each user adds products they like to their profiles, Wish’s algorithm learns more about their tastes and can recommend additional products to them.
The company is also looking to form partnerships with retailers that would be able to sell their products directly on its platform.
Wish’s current user base is divided roughly evenly between Europe and North America but hopes that GGV, which is jointly based in the US and China, and Formation 8, which has several Asian limited partners, can help it to tap the considerable East Asian e-commerce market.