By Pui-Wing Tam
Stamped–the maker of an app that helps people record and share their favorite restaurants, movies, books and more–said it was launching a new version of its iPhone app and that it has closed a new round of financing.
The New York-based company, founded by several former Google employees, said its latest app comes with new features for finding what a person wants, when they want it. The app will be integrated with services from third parties like Fandango, so a person can potentially buy movie tickets quickly after discovering a film that a friend of theirs might have enjoyed, for instance.
“We want to be the centralized place of people’s favorite things,” said Robby Stein, Stamped’s co-founder and CEO. “We’re like a personalized guide to food, movies and books.”
With its new round of funding, Stamped has raised a total of over $3 million, said mr. Stein. in its new round, Stamped primarily raised money from strategic investors that the company wanted to attract to the app to be “influencers,” so celebrities including Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres and Ryan Seacrest are among those who put their money in, mr. Stein said. other investors include well-known tech names like Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures, he added.
Stamped previously raised money from Bain Capital Ventures and Google Ventures last year, he said. The app launched in November 2011.