BuyersZone.com Targets Small Businesses

Seeking to fill the void in purchasing efficiency for small businesses, BuyersZone.com of Watertown, Mass., garnered $6.5 million two weeks ago in its first round of venture funding.

Commonwealth Capital Ventures of Wellesley, Mass., led the financing. Other investors included BancBoston Ventures, OneLiberty Ventures and Women’s Growth Capital Fund.

“As a women-focused fund, [Women’s Growth] provides a different perspective given the large percentage of women-owned small businesses,” said Brenda Chin Hsu, chief executive of BuyersZone.

The concept behind BuyersZone, which operates as an information aggregator and purchasing engine for small businesses, emerged after the founders identified inefficiencies in the buying process for small companies.

“There are different ways to use the Net, so businesses can personalize, and automate, their decision-making process,” Chin Hsu said.

Chin Hsu and Mie Yun Lee, the company’s founder, spotted the opportunity while working with another Internet start-up that wanted to become a Web-based provider of financial services.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to extend the company’s comparison shopping and e-commerce applications. In addition, BuyersZone will look to broaden its network of suppliers for its small business clientele. Chin Hsu said the company has agreements with a full range of suppliers, from national chains to small, local stores.

BuyersZone’s revenue model is driven through the advertising, purchase referrals, listing fees and sponsorships. Chin Hsu added that the company gets a piece of every sale closed online.

“The valuable thing [about BuyersZone] is their content,” said Rob Chandra, general partner at Commonwealth Capital. “It does a lot to help customers choose and determine how to buy.”

The company anticipates pursuing its next round of venture capital financing sometime in the fourth quarter, or perhaps in the first quarter of 2000, Chin Hsu said.