Howzat invests in social networking site
Dot com start-up investment firm Howzat has invested £500,000 in social networking and reviews site www.trustedplaces.com.
It is the third investment by Howzat, formed by Cheapflights.co.uk bosses Hugo Burge and David Soskin. Burge will take a place on the TrustedPlaces board as part of the deal.
London-based TrustedPlaces focuses on recommended places to socialise, eat and drink.
It features ‘taste-matching’ functionality allowing users to assess site content by easily seeing how closely their tastes are to those who created the content. The tool ensures that a new user who takes the “Taste Finder” test on the site ends up with recommendations they can relate to, according to the company.
Burge said: “TrustedPlaces founding-duo, Sokratis Papfloratos (CEO) and Walid Al Saqqaf (COO) are genuine pioneers with an amazing vision of the website they are building.
“Not only does TrustedPlaces let consumers share reviews and communicate but it also uses using intelligent filtering techniques to personalise the results. TrustedPlaces.com starts to define the future direction of social networking and user-generated content. It also helps you to find unusual and independent places in a landscape of increasingly similar restaurants and bars.”
He added that the site “exemplifies the type of dotcom we aspire to invest in”.
“Sokratis and Walid have a passionate vision about creating a vibrant community that will share its collective knowledge about where to eat, drink and hang-out,” said Burge.
“They have created an original website, launched only last year, on a shoestring and it is exciting to be involved in the next stage of their development. HOWZAT shares their belief in the huge potential for the site and is delighted to be involved with TrustedPlaces at this early stage.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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