TaskRabbit, the service network that safely connects people to get things done in daily life, has raised $17.8 million in a Series B round led by LightSpeed Venture Partners with participation from Allen & Co. and Michael Eisner’s The Tornante Co. Eisner, former chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., will give the young company strategic advice in addition to the funding. Also, Justin Caldbeck, managing director at LightSpeed, will join Shasta Ventures’ Sean Flynn and TaskRabbit’s chief executive officer Eric Grosse and founder Leah Busque on the company’s board of directors.
TaskRabbit said the influx will go toward ramping up its technical team and expanding to other cities, starting with Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Portland and Seattle.
Customers post errands, chores or projects they want to have done, and other users bid how much they’d charge to take care of it. The company, which levies an average 15 percent of each transaction, said fetching and assembling Ikea furniture was among its most frequent service requests.
“TaskRabbit’s impressive growth to date and its loyal customer base are evidence of the huge potential that exists in the service networking market,” Caldbeck said. “I am proud to support TaskRabbit as the leader in this space. I love the product, the team and the company’s inspiring vision to empower folks to help others in their community.”
TaskRabbit’s other investors include Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, Floodgate Fund, Collaborative Fund and Shasta Ventures.
Related links:
TaskRabbit’s blog post – http://tinyurl.com/6mp9wzw
Photo by Flickr user pnoeric/Eric Mueller, used under Creative Commons license
