YaSabe secures seed round funding from angel investors

There are over 52 million Hispanic or Latino Americans living across the United States. In 2011, it was deemed that Latin Americans made up 16.7% of the US population, and in certain cities that percentage increased to over 30%.

These staggering numbers show that the US Hispanic community is a well of revenue just waiting to be tapped into – an emerging market within an established market.

YaSabe, a ‘search destination’ catering to Hispanic consumers recognises the buying potential of the community and focuses its products and services accordingly. This concentrated approach has found itself in demand, as YaSabe just closed a US$2.7 million seed round with institutional and angel funders.

High-profile seed accelerator 500 Startups, the Center for Innovative Technology’s Gap Fund, and Militello Capital (who led the round), made up the institutional funds while Frank Bonsal, founder of NEA; Sol Trujillo, former CEO of US West; and Brightstar, the largest US Hispanic-owned business; among others, made up the angel investors.

Offering business and job listings, coupons, as well as cultural content and community-sourced information, YaSabe functions as a one-stop-shop for Hispanic and Latino individuals living in the US available through a bilingual interface.

The genius behind YaSabe is that it operates as a ‘by the community, for the community’ directory, that not only promotes Hispanic-run businesses (and others too), but also provides job opportunities and service information for individuals.

This is a win-win situation: the Hispanic population gets access to information and services, and a sense of community-driven information, while investors gain access to new revenue opportunities within the community.

“Existing local media simply do not address the unique needs of US Hispanics, who collectively represent more than US$1.2 trillion in buying power,” said Zubair Talib, CEO of TaSabe. “We take a multicultural approach to this audience and provide users with high-quality, culturally-relevant content and the ability to participate in the social dialog within the Latino community. If Hispanics are important to your business, this is the place to find and engage them through culture and community.”

The results of the seed round show that investors have identified the US Hispanic market as one to target, and YaSabe as the best platform to gain access to that market through its impressive ethos and cultural understanding of the community.

The seed funding will be used for product development, marketing and continued development of content, traffic and advertising partnerships.

Image: Cliff (via Flickr)