Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Karma Creates New Trust Score For Peer Marketplaces, Backed By $800K

A new, Los Angeles-based startup, Karma, said today that it has launched out of private beta, to help create a global "Karma Score" to rank a user's trust and reliability in peer-to-peer marketplaces. The startup, led by Zach Schiff-Abram, says it is looking to fill in holes in the area of online interactions, and says it already works with Airbnb, DogVacay, eBay, Etsy, RelayRides and Vayable. The company says it uses social verification through such services as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to measure a user's trustworthiness across multiple, peer-to-peer services. Karma says it is backed by $800,000 in funding from angels and seed investors, including Great Oaks Venture Capital and Wildwood Capital UK. The company says it advisors include Mich Mathews (former CMO of Microsoft), Nick Grouf (founder of SpotRunner), and Eva Ho (General Partner of Susa Ventures). More information »