Here’s the official company release.

The financing came from Generation Partners, a private equity firm with past investments in a seemingly random mix of companies. John Hawkins, Managing Partner of Generation Partners, will join ShopWiki’s Board of Directors.

It took me a while to make the connection between John Hawkings and Kevin Ryan (ShopWiki’s CEO)…turns out they were both on the board of HotJobs back in the day. And Red Herring figured that out before I did. Grrr.

According to Shopwiki, the funding will be used for marketing, infrastructure, international expansion, and growing the staff (now up to 30).

If history is any indication, this financing is good news for the company. Almost every venture backed shopping comparison engine had a successful exit:

Jango acquired by Excite ($35m)
Junglee acquired by Amazon ($250m)
C2b acquired by Inktomi Product Search ($90m)
MySimon acquired by CNET ($700m)
Dealtime/Epinions formed Shopping.com, acquired by eBay ($476m)
Bizrate renamed Shopzilla acquired by EW Scripps ($560m)
PriceGrabber acquired by Experian ($485m)

Related Posts:
ShopWiki - Shop By Color - June 14, 2006
eCommerce, Microsoft Style - May 19, 2006
Former DoubleClick Execs Launch ShopWiki - April 19, 2006
Dulance - We hardly knew you - March 29, 2006