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08/01/12 | Uncategorized

Toronto-Based ShopLocket, Co-Founded By Katherine Hague, Raises $1M Seed Funding For E-Commerce Disruption

The $1M seed round for ShopLocket includes participation from Peter Thiel’s Fund Valar Ventures.
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Three months after launching, ShopLocket raised $1M in seed funding from Rho Canada Ventures, Valar Ventures, BDC Capital, Relay Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners and private investors.

Co-founder and CEO Katherine Hague aims to change the way consumers buy and sell products online. She said “e-commerce will not longer be reserved for marketplaces and storefronts. Instead, products will find us – on blogs, websites and in our newsfeeds, just as naturally as the videos and photos we share today.”

Previously, Katherine was a Shopify theme developer and held a variety of marketing positions at Toronto-based startups. She was looking to sell t-shirts she had custom made last summer and despite a variety of solutions available to help sellers set up online retail stores, she couldn’t find an easy solution for those just wanting to sell a single product from their website, blog, or Facebook page. She launched ShopLocket to provide a simple platform for anyone to start selling in minutes.

Katherine gives advice to entrepreneurs raising money: “Build relationships with investors early on. People are going to invest in you, not your idea – especially at the seed stage. Try to build more then a superficial connection. Timing also plays a huge role. Are you pitching at the right time for your startup? Your stage in the product development process? Your traction? Be sure to plan our when is the right time to raise, don’t wait till you need the money and don’t get too frustrated when pitches don’t go well. Consider them learning experiences. You will get many, many nos, or not nows along the way.”

ShopLocket is a recent graduate of Toronto-based accelerator Extreme Startup. The funding will be used to grow the team in Toronto and accelerate product development.

Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in high-growth, high-tech entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management and web UI design. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1” for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

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