The Hunt, a community-driven online site making photographs shoppable, has secured $10 million in Series B funding.
The latest round was led by Khosla Ventures, which joins Series A investor Javelin Ventures, in bringing the total Series B round to $10 million. Including the $5.5 million Series A round in November led by Javelin, The Hunt has raised a total of $15.5 million so far.
The company said proceeds will be used primarily for hiring additional staff because the firm already doubled its staff since mid-2013 and its still needs to build out its team to “accommodate its rapidly growing user base.”
Ben Ling, a partner at Khosla, will joint The Hunt’s board. Alex Gurevich, partner at Javelin, is also on the board, as are The Hunt’s cofounder and chief executive officer Tim Weingarten and Patrick McVeigh, an advisor to many technology-related firms.
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“In the last ten years, Google scaled its search revenue by understanding intent through text queries,” Ling said. “Today, The Hunt is changing the way that people shop online by identifying intent on the visual web. Monetizing the visual web is the next big opportunity, and we are looking forward to being a part of The Hunt’s success,” he added.
Weingarten said, “Two million hunts are started and followed each week. About 50 percent are solved within minutes or the same day.”
He added that of the remaining 50 percent, between 5 to 10 percent are solved within the week. Also, about 20 percent are never solved, but that’s typically due to something in the search query, whether an unclear photo or some search parameter that isn’t detailed enough, Weingarten explained.
He also said that the Millennials and the 20-something consumers, the primary users of the app, spend an hour on average on the mobile app each week over the course of three days per week, with 70 percent actively looking for something they want to buy.