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RateItAll announced on September 17, 2008, that it had raised an additional $600,000, bringing a previously reported $800,000 financing to $1.4 million. The San Francisco review startup built a broad user-generated ratings site and said it shared advertising revenue with reviewers. The financing was completed in stages; the available record does not identify the new investors or disclose the round’s valuation or terms.
What RateItAll did
RateItAll was a consumer-review and social-networking website where users could rate a wide range of products, services, and other subjects. Rather than concentrating on one category such as restaurants or hotels, the company pitched a broad platform for reviews of nearly anything. Co-founder and CEO Lawrence Coburn described the idea as a “distributed Yelp for everything,” a company positioning rather than evidence that RateItAll matched Yelp’s scale or capabilities. Archival company and funding records describe the service and its positioning.
The breadth was both an opportunity and a challenge. A broad catalogue could serve people looking for opinions across many categories, while specialist services could concentrate review volume and expertise in particular ones. The surviving record does not provide user or review counts, so it cannot establish how much coverage RateItAll achieved.
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How the $1.4 million financing was assembled
The financing came in two reported steps:
- June 18, 2008: RateItAll reported an $800,000 financing.
- September 17, 2008: The company reported an additional $600,000, bringing the total to $1.4 million.
So the September announcement was not evidence that the entire $1.4 million arrived as new money that day. It described the completion of a financing previously reported at $800,000.
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The earlier $800,000 was associated with Accelerator Ventures, JAIC America, Pacific I&T Ventures, and Eric Di Benedetto. The archival record says the later close included new investors but does not name them. It therefore does not establish whether any of the earlier backers participated again, who led the completed financing, or what shares or other securities investors received. No valuation or breakdown of how the money was to be spent is available in the record.
The advertising-and-reviewer model
RateItAll’s stated approach was to display advertising around user-created reviews and share some advertising revenue with reviewers. In principle, paying contributors could help encourage the steady supply of content a wide-ranging review site needs. But advertising also has to generate enough to cover the company’s costs and reviewer payments, and broad coverage can make it harder to build deep, dependable information in each category.
The available evidence does not specify the revenue split, payout rules, advertising income, moderation costs, or whether the model was profitable. The $1.4 million financing shows that capital was raised; by itself, it does not demonstrate a particular level of audience, revenue, or product-market fit.
What came after the financing
Archival references show RateItAll continuing to add product and social features. In January 2009, reports described social-networking features, review feeds, compatibility quizzes, and an API. In August 2009, the site added a way to submit reviews by email. These developments suggest the company was exploring ways to make reviewing and sharing more convenient, but the record does not say that the financing specifically paid for them.
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In March 2010, RateItAll was associated with DoubleDutch, a location-based mobile social-networking product for events, businesses, and schools. That connection offers context for the company’s later direction, but the available evidence does not establish whether DoubleDutch was a pivot, spinout, acquisition, or formal successor to RateItAll.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the historical record can—and cannot—show
The financing belongs to 2008, not a current funding round. The accessible account is archival and secondary, rather than a complete original financing announcement. It supports the reported $800,000 plus $600,000 sequence, the named investors in the earlier financing, and the company’s stated product and revenue model. It does not establish the final investor list, financing terms, valuation, operating performance, or RateItAll’s present-day status. A stale database label is not enough to conclude that the service remains active or to say when or how it ended.
SF New Tech’s legacy archive provides additional archival context about RateItAll and its founder. Taken together, the records document an early attempt to combine broad consumer reviews, social features, and contributor revenue sharing—but not whether that model became a sustainable business.
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