Press Releases

Fresh off the heels of the announcement of a $12 million Series C round of investment, Boston-based Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation’s largest reCommerce service, announced today that it had hired three industry leaders, Chris Sullivan, Ben Katz and Joseph Morrow as CFO, CTO and Executive Vice President respectively.Chris, Ben and Joe join Gazelle with storied track records of driving growth and profitability and building singular customer experiences.

Chris Sullivan joins Gazelle as Chief Financial Officer with more than two decades of experience working with publicly traded and private technology companies including start-ups to large multinationals. Chris' strategic thinking, extensive M&A experience and inherent leadership skills as CFO have driven consistent high growth, profitability and improved cash flow at small, mid-sized and large companies including Pegasystems, Event Zero and DEC. Chris has also held senior finance roles at Compaq, Fisher Scientific and HR Access, a Fidelity owned, but independently operated company. During his career Chris also served as COO, overseeing functions including Human Resources, Legal, Sales Operations, Information Technology and facilities. Chris is a native Bostonian and received both his B.S. and MBA from Babson College.

Benjamin Katz joins Gazelle as Chief Technology Officer. A respected leader in technology, Ben was most recently CIO of RueLaLa, the leading “private sale” e-Commerce site where he introduced and developed the now ubiquitous model and experience of an online private sale. Benjamin is known for building high growth brands and explaining new internet retail concepts through technology. Prior to RueLaLa Ben was Vice President of Innovation at Allurent, where he was responsible for leading User-Experience projects from inception through post-deployment support. Ben is also responsible for building some of the most popular e-commerce retail sites including anthropologie.com and while serving as Director of Technology at ATG, Ben managed large-scale e-commerce sites including jcrew.com and sun.com. Ben resides in Cambridge where he can bike to the Gazelle offices in only 20 minutes.

Joe Morrow will spearhead Gazelle's operations and eCommerce strategy as EVP of Operations, bringing a new level of innovation and efficiency to the team. He has gained extensive experience in the field, serving as the President and COO of both ReCellular and Enlighten, a Managing Director at Morningstar Consulting Group and Partner at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants. Joe also held consulting roles with McKinsey & Co. as well as A.T. Kearney. Joe is a BGS graduate from University of Michigan and also holds a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago.

“It is a privilege to join Gazelle and what’s particularly exciting is the opportunity to be part of something gamechanging: helping to invent and establish the notion of reCommerce,” said Chris Sullivan. “I look forward to the challenge of taking this singular business opportunity and ensuring that our growth is scaled and profitable.”

“I am excited to join a company with such immense growth potential and a great business model,” said Benjamin Katz. “My goal is to help Gazelle continue providing a seamless user experience and to make reCommerce available to a critical mass of consumers. We want to educate all consumers and enable them to adopt this new mode of consumption.”

“Gazelle’s reCommercing services are changing the way consumers use and recycle their electronics,” said Joe Morrow. “Being a part of this company means being a pioneer in an innovative eCommerce industry that is not only enhancing environmental sustainability, but is also revolutionizing consumer behavior.”

Boston-based Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation’s largest reCommerce service, announced today that Physic Ventures (www.physicventures.com) is leading its $12 million series C round of investment. Gazelle’s current investors, Venrock Associates (www.venrock.com) and RockPort Capital (www.rockportcap.com), have also announced their additional investment and participation in this round of financing.

Last year, Gazelle’s business tripled as Gazelle attracted nearly 100,000 customers to trade in or recycle used electronics. Fueled by new equity, Gazelle will focus on scaling its business infrastructure to meet this rapid growth. The new funding also enables Gazelle to make additional investments in key areas of the business, including its proprietary pricing technologies and processes that continue to enhance the customer experience. Gazelle will also work with existing retail partners to build an in-store experience that brings reCommerce to physical retailer sites across the nation.

“Physic Ventures believes that providing tools and incentives for consumers to reuse, recycle, and engage in reCommerce can dramatically reduce the environmental impact of our modern lifestyles,” said Andrew Williamson, a Director at Physic Ventures. “Gazelle’s impressive growth demonstrates that consumers and manufacturers are rapidly adopting the concept of reCommerce as a way to cost effectively and environmentally upgrade consumer electronics. We look forward to working with the company’s talented team and existing investors to help Gazelle continue this growth.”

According to Gazelle co-founder and CEO, Israel Ganot, Physic Ventures’ expertise in the field of sustainable living will help further Gazelle’s vision of reCommerce. “Our goal is to redefine consumption and completely change the way consumers think about buying, owning, selling, and recycling electronics. By helping us bring reCommerce to more people and build infrastructure to support the back-end processes of the business, this financing will make this goal a reality.”

This round of funding is the third in Gazelle’s four-year history, with its last round in 2008, led by RockPort Capital. Since 2008, Gazelle has realized aggressive growth, adding a dozen categories and 200,000 products to build upon its well-respected customer experience.Gazelle has seen rapid expansion of its retail partnerships, including relationships with walmart.com, Sears, Kmart, Office Depot, and Costco.

Eight days since Steve Jobs’ buzzworthy unveiling of the iPhone 4, upgraders have traded in more than 10,000 2G, 3G and 3GS iPhones to Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation’s largest consumer electronics reCommerce service and on the company’s new mobile site iphone.gazelle.com where customers can literally trade in their iPhone from their iPhone.

Since June 7^th, Gazelle has seen more than 10,000 iPhone trades, greater than 10x the amount received following the announcement of the 3GS last June. Trade-in data has shown the following:

• 3GS: represent 58% of trade ins and today are worth up to $222

• 3G: represent 34% of trade ins and are worth up to $141

• 2G: represent 8% of trade ins and are worth up to $115

While Gazelle expects prices to drop as the launch approaches, the average offer price is still more than $200, allowing many iPhone owners to upgrade for free. Gazelle also offers 30-day offer insurance on your traded-in iPhone, meaning that if the offer is higher on the day Gazelle receives a customer’s phone, customers will get the higher offer.

“We’re thrilled to help iPhone owners upgrade smart,” said Israel Ganot, co-founder and CEO of Gazelle. “What’s surprised us is how many iPhone 3GS owners have already committed to upgrading to the iPhone 4. It’s much different behavior than we saw when the 3GS was announced, and I think it shows what an impact the iPhone 4 will make when it launches on June 24^th.”

This year, with so many 2G owners ready to take the leap to newer technology and the discontinuation of the 3GS, Gazelle expects trade-in fever to have an even more noticeable impact on the resale market. Currently its projecting more than 20,000 iPhones will be traded during the next 30-45 days. Gazelle ensures all data is properly removed from every gadget that is traded, and 100% of the items that are sent to Gazelle are responsibly reused or recycled.

ABOUT GAZELLE

Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), a service of Second Rotation, Inc., is committed to providing an easy, fast, and safe way for consumers to get cash for selling unwanted electronics or to recycle them responsibly. To date, more than 80,000 consumers have used the service as a way to clean out closets, get cash and help out a good cause. In addition, Gazelle empowers consumers to avoid time consuming and risky online experiences associated with peer-to-peer selling. Consumers can rest assured that all personal information is thoroughly removed from their item while benefiting from conveniences like free shipping and packaging. Based in Boston, Gazelle is backed by premier venture capital firms Venrock Associates and RockPort Capital Partners.

Just in time for the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4, Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation’s largest consumer electronics reCommerce service, is launching a mobile site to let customers trade in their used iPhone right from their phone: iphone.gazelle.com.

The mobile website’s intuitive interface allows customers to find out how much their iPhone is worth in less than one minute.

• Go to iphone.gazelle.com

• Select your model (2G, 3G, 3GS)

• Answer four quick questions about the phone’s condition

• Get your cash offer

From there, customers ship their phone to Gazelle (packaging and shipping is free) and then get paid.Although Gazelle expects prices to drop throughout the week, today customers can get more than $250 for used phones, allowing many iPhone owners to upgrade for free.

Gazelle has already seen a record number of iPhone trades and expects that tens of thousands of Apple users will trade in 2Gs, 3Gs, and 3GS to help offset the cost of upgrading to iPhone 4. “If you’re planning to upgrade, we think you should upgrade smart, said Israel Ganot, co-founder and CEO of Gazelle. “Our mobile site will bring the ability to upgrade into the palm of your hand, making it simpler than ever to offset the purchase of a new iPhone.”

A new iPhone launch means big business for the reCommerce industry. Last year, thousands of consumers’ gazelled iPhones ahead of the 3GS launch in order to get cash for an upgrade. This year, with so many 2G owners ready to take the leap to newer technology, Gazelle expects trade-in fever to have an even more noticeable impact on the market. Gazelle ensures all data is properly removed from every gadget that is traded, and 100% of the items that are sent to Gazelle are responsibly reused or recycled.

ABOUT GAZELLE

Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), a service of Second Rotation, Inc., is committed to providing an easy, fast, and safe way for consumers to get cash for selling unwanted electronics or to recycle them responsibly. To date, more than 80,000 consumers have used the service as a way to clean out closets, get cash and help out a good cause. In addition, Gazelle empowers consumers to avoid time consuming and risky online experiences associated with peer-to-peer selling. Consumers can rest assured that all personal information is thoroughly removed from their item while benefiting from conveniences like free shipping and packaging. Based in Boston, Gazelle is backed by premier venture capital firms Venrock Associates and RockPort Capital Partners.

Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation’s largest consumer electronics reCommerce service, achieved 300% growth in revenues and product acquired in 2009. Last year, more than 50,000 consumers gazelled more than 100,000 electronics. Such metrics have made Gazelle both the largest and fastest growing player in the reCommerce industry.

Gazelle attributes its growth to its focus on customer experience, expanded marketing efforts, and the launch of several major retail partnerships. In 2009, Gazelle launched three retail partnerships and now powers electronics trade-in and recycle programs for Walmart.com, Costco, and Sears. Gazelle also made improvements on the gazelle.com business by cutting payment time in half and adding Amazon gift cards and Walmart gift cards as payment options. Category coverage expanded from 14 to 20 categories with the additions of LCD monitors, BluRay players, and home audio equipment.Shipping improvements were also introduced, including carbon free shipping and expanded free packaging programs.

Gazelle also launched two new services, Gazelle for Business (G4B) and Gazelle for Good (G4G). Gazelle’s G4B service attracted more than 100 companies to trade in and recycle their office electronics such as laptops, PDAs, and cell phones, while the G4G service enabled hundreds of NPOs and individual fundraisers to raise thousands of dollars for their favorite causes by collecting used gadgets.

As a result of this rapid growth and quick adoption of the service, Gazelle doubled its Allston, Mass office space from 14,000 to 28,000 sq. ft. and, during the year, tripled its work-force to more than 100 local, Boston employees.

2010: Looking Ahead

Gazelle expects 2010 to be another high growth year. During the next 12 months, Gazelle expects to announce the following:

“Gazelle’s exceptional growth in 2009 proves that consumers are changing the way they think about consumption and are constantly looking for ways to make smarter, more environmentally responsible purchasing choices,” said Israel Ganot, Chief Executive Officer, Gazelle. “We are confident that the efficient consumer will not die out when the economy bounces back, and that 2010 will solidify Gazelle’s place as the reCommerce leader. We look forward to exciting new retail partnerships and continuing to build on our innovative, industry leading customer experience and back-end processes for data destruction and recycling.”