Swaptree filed an SEC notice yesterday stating it has raised $4.75 million by offering its equity, options and warrants. Swaptree already had a previous $3.4 investment from Safeguard Scientific (NYSE: SFE) in 2008. Back then the company was valued at $11.72 million. This new round is sure to have raised Swaptree’s value considerably but it has yet to release information about who made the investment and at what valuation.
Swaptree, based in Boston, is the only American consumer barter exchange which has been able to attract venture capital at this level in recent years (back in 2006/7 companies like Peerflix and Lala raised even more). Swaptree enables the online trading of books, DVDs, CDs and video games, and is second only to the privately held PaperBackSwap in its popularity.
This is a continued vote of confidence in the industry’s untapped potential within a wider ecosystem of eCommerce. It’s great news not only for Swaptree, but for anybody involved in online consumer barter.
