Simon Rothman, eCommerce pioneer and founder of eBay Motors, today announced that he has formed Glyde Corporation, a new company whose mission is to democratize eCommerce. Glyde has created a platform that will introduce a wholly new experience for consumers and usher in the next generation of eCommerce. Recognizing that selling online is too complicated for most people, and that buying used items online should be as simple and safe as buying new, Glyde today unveiled www.glyde.com, a beta version of its online marketplace. (See related news release “Glyde Debuts a Remarkably Simple Online Marketplace for Used Goods.”)
“Glyde gives new meaning to the phrase 'easy to use' and brings us closer to the promise of frictionless commerce,” said Bill Tai, General Partner at Charles River Ventures, who led the $6 million series A round. “They are in a position to fundamentally change eCommerce for consumers.”
In 2006, Glyde began building its eCommerce platform realizing that while eCommerce is one of the largest, most lucrative spaces online, it is not fully evolved. The user experience for buyers and sellers of used goods is not optimized. Sellers have to do a lot of work to list, sell, and fulfill a used item, while buyers have to do a lot of work to find and buy an item that saves them a few bucks. Glyde leverages the latest technology to create a platform that makes it simple for real people to easily buy and sell real things.
The Glyde marketplace is for used goods that everyone has in their homes - books, CDs, DVDs and video games. More than $300 billion of used media is sitting on shelves in U.S. homes, and most of it gathers dust until people give it away or throw it away. By creating an efficient secondary market for used goods like these, Glyde for the first time enables average Americans to easily unlock the cash value from their unwanted goods.
“The average American household has three thousand dollars worth of unwanted media collecting dust,” said Rothman. “We built a service that makes buying and selling a used DVD as simple as trading a share of Disney stock. It's the NASDAQ for physical goods.”
The Glyde Platform: a Holistic eCommerce System
To achieve its mission of simplicity and safety for consumers, Glyde had to re-envision the systems, technology and data upon which eCommerce platforms are built.
“eCommerce companies have to meet a high bar to service customers well,” said Tai. “It takes a team with Glyde's industry experience and product expertise to build the next generation eCommerce platform.”
Glyde makes buying and selling an almost effortless process by taking on all of the work on the user's behalf. For sellers, it does the work of describing, pricing, merchandising, packaging, stamping and tracking the item. The seller only needs to place the item into the stamped, pre-addressed envelope and drop it in the mailbox. Glyde makes buying used goods safe and easy. Buyers get single-page single-click purchasing, payment protection and no-hassle returns.
“Making things simple is actually really hard,” said Rothman. “To democratize eCommerce, Glyde absorbed the complexity so users don't have to.”
Giving with Glyde
Glyde makes charitable giving easy. Sellers can donate all or part of their proceeds to their favorite charity during the listing process with a single click.
“There's billions of dollars worth of unwanted stuff in people's homes,” said Rothman. “Just think of the good that could be done if people had the ability to easily sell it. They could use the money themselves or give it to someone who needs it.”
About Glyde Corporation
Glyde Corporation was founded by Internet veterans from eBay, AOL and Excite to democratize eCommerce and give back to the world. Glyde is committed both to making online buying and selling safe, simple and accessible to everyone, and to making it easy for users to donate part or all of their proceeds to charity. Glyde Corporation is based in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit www.glyde.com.
About Charles River Ventures
Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures is one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $2.1 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology and media sectors. Over the past 10 years, CRV funds have been ranked among the industry's top performers. CRV has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA.
Contacts:
Glyde Corporation
Kathleen Miller, 415-285-0360
or
Marissa
Harrison, 415-652-1820
pr@glyde.com