| Website | pelago.com |
| Category | Web |
| Phone | (206) 223-0660 |
| Employees | |
| Founded | 11/06 |
| Total | $22.4M |
| Series A, 11/06 Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Trilogy Equity Partners Jeff Bezos | $7.4M |
| Series B, 5/08 T-Venture Bezos Expeditions DAG Ventures Reliance Technology Ventures Reliance ADA Group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Trilogy Equity Partners | $15M |
| Unattributed, 5/08 iFund |
Founded by former Amazon executives, Pelago’s first product is Whrrl. It’s a social network, Google maps mash-up, mobile and GPS service all in one. It’s not surprising that their founders call it a web and mobile experience for simplicity. The social network experience allows members to share opinions and knowledge about local restaurants, bars, retail stores, and hotels. These locations are then mapped onto a Google Map adjacent to the reviews. Each spot is identified with a color corresponding to the quality of its reviews. Users can choose to have the dots represent their personal reviews or the community’s. A full featured version of the site is also available on mobile, with GPS services to track your friends, similar to Loopt.
The site is currently in public beta and is only available in a few metropolitan areas. It’s free, but there are future plans to charge mobile users to use the service.
The most similar service available is UK-based Rummble. Whrrl’s most direct competitor in the US is Yelp.
| Website | whrrl.com |
| Blog | pelago.com/blog |
| Stage | Live |
| Launch Date | October 23, 2007 |
| Tags | location-based-services, social-networking, local-search, personalization, ad-supported-software, jeff-holden, discovery |
Pelago’s first product, Whrrl, was released from invite-only to a public beta on 10/23/2007. According to Pelago’s website, Whrrl “allows you to discover the world through the eyes of your friends and other people you trust.”
Whrrl allows users to discover places, movies and events by seeing where their friends are going. They can share their location and experiences with friends on the go. Whrrl users can also track the places they’ve been and want to go. Whrrl provides access through a mobile application and SMS.
Whrrl supports numerous mobile phones including Blackberry and iPhone.
