Seattle startup PlaceFull has reeled in $1 million in cash to continue building out a service for helping folks find the perfect party spot — whether laser tag, pottery painting or educational day camps. We previously reported on $500,000 of the round, which was provided by Seattle angels last year.
At the time, the company was developing the platform for all sorts of venues, meeting spaces and wedding locations. And while you can still find those on PlaceFull, the company is now focusing on spots that are ideal for kids’ birthday parties and day camps.
“Overall we have about 275 different merchants on board,” said PlaceFull’s Adam Lang. “However our primary focus is on the kids birthday party and camps vertical. We plan on using the funds to expand our private label presence.”
PlaceFull is competing with another new entrant that we just wrote about: Katie Thompson’s new startup Sigby. It just raised $1.2 million in seed funding.
PlaceFull was founded by former Microsoft employees Ryan Hamlin and George Webb, and company is focusing efforts on its Private Label Platform which is designed to help businesses embed listings directly on their Web sites in order to increase bookings.
One of those private label merchants is HappyNest. They pay a licensing fee to PlaceFull, and as a result get online booking and marketing services.
I asked Lang for more details about how they are unique from Sigby. He noted that PlaceFull is focused more on camps and parties, while Sigby tends to skew more toward classes for kids.
“Merchants can list on both of our sites and be discovered that way,” he said. “However, we are taking it a step further. We are embedding those same listing(s) on their own website. We believe many of these merchants are losing business because consumers cant book online. Merchants in this industry are busy. We aim at decreasing call times and voicemails through online booking. In addition to all this, we are providing merchants tips and strategies on how to better market their business online.”
