$7.4M Shines for Redbeacon

Redbeacon, a San Mateo, CA-based Web service where consumers can request price quotes from local service providers such as plumbers and personal trainers, said this week (PDF) that it has closed a $7.4 million Series A round of venture financing. Mayfield Fund and Venrock led the round, and Mayfield managing director Raj Kapoor and Venrock general partner Brian Ascher have joined Redbeacon’s board. Redbeacon debuted last fall and has about 4,000 registered service providers in the San Francisco Bay area, with plans to expand to other regions. “The local services opportunity for Redbeacon is one of the largest and most underserved markets on the Internet,” Kapoor said in the company’s announcement.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/