Thumbtack Acquires Social Commerce App

Local services marketplace Thumbtack has embarked on its first acquisition.

The company announced it will bring on board the team behind mobile and Web shopping application HeartThis in an effort to expand its engineering and product teams.

“Our team is thrilled to join Thumbtack during this exciting time. With their successful business model and the large scale technical challenges they are tackling, we can’t wait to join them in making a real impact to Thumbtack professionals’ businesses,” HeartThis Founder and CEO,Andrew Gadson said in a blog post on Thumbtack’s site.

HeartThis utilizes mobile devices to enable a single platform for shopping across multiple retailers.

Customers select their favorite stores and categories of apparel, and the app uses those initial preferences to return a Pinterest-like customized feed. From there, users have the option to “heart” things they like and add them to a wish list or a collection.

But instead of acquiring HeartThis’ product or technology, Thumbtack is strictly focused on capturing the value of its human capital.

According to TechCrunch, Thumbtack looks to hire four employees from HeartThis, including its co-founder and CEO, while the remaining two employees chose to move on to other endeavors. Thumbtack confirmed the HeartThis service will remain live for now.

While the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, TechCrunch confirmed part of the deal is being done in shares as HeartThis investors will become investors in Thumbtack.

“They’re happy because they believe in us,” Thumbtack co-founder and CEO Marco Zappacosta told TechCrunch in reference to HeartThis investors. “They are now betting on Thumbtack.”

Just last month the online marketplace, which helps consumers in need of professional services find then negotiate for those jobs online, secured $100 million in funding from the Google Capital fund, with additional investments from Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Javelin Venture Partners.

“Thumbtack has seen 300 percent growth in projects over the past year,” Thumbtack said in a statement at the time. “The company sends an estimated $1.8 billion worth of business annually to more than 75,000 paying professionals.”

The latest funding brought the total current investment to $150 million.

Zappacosta told TechCrunch more acquisitions are on the horizon for the fast-growing company.

“We have almost all of the $100 million we raised in the last round still in the bank,” Zappacosta said. “But we are being smart and opportunistic. We are in a thankful position where raising money is not a challenge for us and you can never say never. The capital markets are more welcoming of our story and those like ours like never before.”

[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_single_image image=”148412″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d” border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_blank” css_animation=”left-to-right” img_size=”full” link=”http://pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net/whats-hot-today/”][vc_column_text css_animation=””]

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]