The founders of Google Maps and Bebo have backed an Irish ecommerce startup set up by 2 Oxford robotics grads

Pointy

Pointy, a Dublin startup with a device that shopkeepers can use to list their products online, has raised $6 million (£4 million) from a host of big name investors.

The Series A funding comes from Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, Lars Rasmussen cofounder of Google Maps, Taavet Hinrikus cofounder of TransferWise, and Michael Birch cofounder of Bebo.

Venture capital firms Draper Associates and Frontline Ventures also participated in the round, which brings total investment in Pointy up to around $7.2 million (£5.3 million).

Founded by Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby, who met while studying their PhDs in robotics, Pointy provides local stores with a way to list all of their products online.

The company's "Pointy box" device connects to a store's barcode scanner and automatically puts scanned items on a website for the store. Pointy says that store pages are optimised for search engines, so that when local customers search for products, they find results from local stores.

Pointy Box A

"For many local retailers, keeping up with technology can feel like too much," said Cummins in a statement. "They have full time jobs to do already, they don't have the time or expertise to create digital stores as well. But consumers increasingly expect to find everything on their smartphones.

"If someone takes out their phone to search for a product they want to buy, they're likely to see a result from Amazon, even if a local store 50 feet away has the product in stock. It's a frustrating for retailers and consumers alike. Pointy is solving that problem in a way that's effortless for retailers."

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