Venice-based Tapiture, a sort-of Pinterest for men, has raised $825,000 in venture capital, the company announced Tuesday.
While Pinterest caters mostly to women – 19 percent of all online women use Pinterest, according to a September Pew Internet study, Tapiture fills the gap for the male-audience, where users share pictures of cars, suits, tech gadgets, motorcycles and sports.
People can “tap” things they stumble upon the web and organize them into collections that can be shared with followers. With part of the new funding, Tapiture will add retail buyers, to be called “Tastemakers” to its full-time team, currently comprised of seven employees at their Venice office, located at 701 Ocean Front Walk. The company expects to double its workforce by the middle of 2013.
In an effort to find a profitable model, the “Tastemakers” will partner with advertisers to curate products that will be available for sale on the site.
“We’re thrilled with Tapiture’s early success and stand committed to supporting their effort in becoming the web’s leading male-centric social discovery and sharing site,” said Leo Resig, CEO of Resignation Media and Tapiture board member. “Tapiture’s ability to secure a healthy seed funding round is a resounding testament to the platform’s market potential to introduce innovative and profitable e-commerce solutions. It’s going to be an exciting year.”
Tapiture, founded in 2012 by brothers John and Leo Resig as a supplement to their other site, theChive, a photo site that highlights the funnies viral videos, recorded 4.1 million unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2012 and generated 78 million page views.
