buySAFE(R), Inc. Shows Impressive Growth in 2005
Market Wire, February, 2006
buySAFE, Inc. (www.buysafe.com), the leading online trust and safety company for e-Commerce transactions, announced today that it exceeded company expectations for 2005 in the areas of company growth, funding, partnerships and programs, and key personnel recruitment.
Highlights of 2005 included:
Company growth
-- Increased the number of active sellers using buySAFE by almost 400
percent year over year.
-- Seven of the top nine highest feedback-rated eBay sellers in the
United States use buySAFE, as well as 10 out of the top 25.
-- Achieved a quarterly growth rate of more than 140 percent in bonded
listings, and a quarterly growth rate of more than 80 percent in the number
of bonds issued (transactions completed).
-- Increased the number of active bonded listings to approximately 2
million items in December 2005.
Funding
-- Completed a Series B round of $13.25M led by Grotech Capital Group and
Core Capital Partners. First-round backers Hartford Ventures and Thomas
Rutherfoord, Inc. also invested.
-- Won the Northern Virginia Technology Council's Hottest Venture Capital
Deal award.
Partnerships and Programs
-- Launched the buySAFE Shopping Web site (shopping.buysafe.com), the
world's only all-bonded shopping site, where every merchant is bonded and
every listing is guaranteed with a surety bond from Liberty Mutual -- up to
$25,000 -- at no cost to the buyer, significantly reducing risk for online
shoppers.
-- Launched the Trusted Merchant Program with Overstock.com where all
Trusted Merchants are bonded with buySAFE. Trusted Merchants' listings
accounted for more than 60% of all listings on Overstock.com Auctions in
2005.
-- Launched bonding program with TIAS.com, the largest fixed-price source
of antiques and collectibles on the Internet.
Key Personnel
-- Mary Dridi joined buySAFE as the company's first CFO. Dridi is the
former CFO of webMethods and played an integral role in their IPO, which
was one of the most successful in the history of the high-tech sector.
-- Rob Kodey joined buySAFE as VP, Technology. Kodey has a successful
track record of developing technology programs for emerging companies and
most recently served as VP, Technology for Cyveillance.
-- Doubled the number of buySAFE employees.
-- Added new members to the Board of Directors, including Patrick J.
Kerins, General Partner of Grotech Capital Group; Jonathan Silver, Founder
and Managing Director of Core Capital Partners; Scott Kraft, CEO of Kraft
Consultants and former VP, Global Head of Branding and Advertising at Sun
Microsystems; Pat Gross, a founder of American Management Systems, Inc.,
and board member for Capital One Financial Corporation, Aegis
Communications and others; and Andrew Parsons, Chairman of Gulliver Growth
Partners, LLC and former Director and Senior Partner of McKinsey & Co.
-- Added new members to buySAFE's Advisory Board, including David
Holtzman, former CTO of Network Solutions, and Marsha Collier, author of
the two best-selling eBay references on the market -- "eBay for Dummies,
4th edition" and "Starting an eBay Business for Dummies."
"We exceeded our expectations for 2005, and feel that we are very well positioned for even greater success in 2006," said Jeff Grass, CEO, buySAFE. "We look forward to the continued rapid adoption of buySAFE by online merchants and to building widespread brand awareness among online shoppers. With our new initiatives to significantly broaden buySAFE's availability to bond all e-Commerce transactions, we are confident that 2006 will be a pivotal year for the company."
buySAFE offers a unique solution to one of the biggest challenges that online shoppers face -- knowing who to trust. The buySAFE Seal in a Bonded Seller's listing indicates that the seller has:
-- passed buySAFE's comprehensive business inspection process to ensure
they are trustworthy, reliable, and committed to delivering on the promises
they make to buyers;
-- agreed to allow buySAFE to continuously monitor their performance in
every transaction; and
-- paid for a surety bond from Liberty MutualĀ® to guarantee each bonded
transaction up to $25,000.
Consumers who wish to purchase items bonded with buySAFE may visit buySAFE Shopping at http://shopping.buysafe.com, or may search for buySAFE Bonded Items on eBay, Overstock.com Auctions or TIAS.
ABOUT buySAFE
buySAFE, Inc. helps to create a safe and stress-free online shopping environment through Bonded Shopping(TM) -- the only program that qualifies merchants, identifies reputable online businesses with the buySAFE Seal, and uses surety bonds to provide broad protection for individual buyers from online transaction risks. buySAFE also benefits online merchants by increasing trust and confidence with their shoppers, thereby increasing profit opportunities. There are currently more than two million items bonded with buySAFE that can be found at shopping.buysafe.com. buySAFE is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. More information can be found at www.buysafe.com.
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