SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wish, a leading mobile commerce platform founded by Google and Yahoo alums Peter Szulczewski and Danny Zhang, today announced that it closed a $19 million round of financing led by GGV Capital and Formation8. Existing seed investors also participated, including Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. Additionally, Hans Tung, managing director at GGV Capital joined the company's board of directors.
Since launching in early 2013, Wish has risen to the #1 mobile-only shopping app on the iOS and Android app stores, and has more than 25 million users in 50 countries. Designed as a mobile-first application, Wish uses matching technology to deliver a visually engaging, entertaining, and individualized shopping experience. Similar to going to the mall with friends, Wish enables entertainment via discovery and drives a very high engagement rate among its users: repeat customers make up approximately half of all purchases. Wish is focused on the value conscious mainstream consumer, a market that in the offline world is led by global retailers such as Walmart, Target, and T.J. Maxx, and represents more than $400 billion in US sales annually.
"We built Wish to deliver a fantastic shopping experience for the hundreds of millions of people around the globe who like to shop as entertainment on their smartphone – we think of it as a personalized shopping mall in your pocket. Building this kind of personalized experience requires a global operation and we have been global since Day 1," said Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski. "Our investor base has a strong global focus, and we are excited to work with Hans and welcome his experience with China, and specifically Xiaomi, in helping us to grow Wish as a global leader in the mobile commerce space."
"Peter and Danny have a terrific understanding of the mechanics of creating a scalable online marketplace. They've built a beautiful application that is delighting millions of consumers every week," said Hans Tung, Managing Partner, GGV Capital. "In many ways, they are creating a mobile Taobao for the western world."
About Wish
Wish is focused on building the world's leading mobile shopping platform, connecting Western mobile consumers with products from around the world and a particular focus on China. Wish investors include Formation8, GGV Capital and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and Beijing. To learn more about Wish or to download the Wish mobile app, visit www.wish.com.